Windows 7 Aero Theme with High Contrast

[OpLickem]

I seem to have High Contrast constantly stuck on and I don't know how to turn it off. I was streaming a game online and let my Livestream Procaster automatically set my computers theme to Windows Classic. When I was done and switched back to a normal Aero theme (I just clicked on the Windows 7 one and changed the desktop and colour to what I wanted) but the desktop background image is maintaining a very high contrast and the image looks horrid. Aside from that, my Google Chrome keeps popping a message up at me that says "You have High Contrast mode enabled. Would you like to install our High Contrast extension and a dark theme?"

I've tried changing my theme to different Aero ones, I've tried turning off settings in Ease of Access, tried Alt + Left Shift + PrtScr and I've tried adjusting my monitor's brightness and contrast. I see other pictures just fine but it seems to be only in my browser and on my desktop (IE: when I open the same desktop image in Windows Photo Viewer, it looks normal with no high contrast).

Please, if there are any other suggestions for how I can turn this off and set the contrast back to normal, I would really appreciate it! I'm using Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit. Here's a screenshot of my desktop image vs the regular image and the notice my google chrome is giving me.

 

[A Guy]

Welcome to Seven Forums OpLickem. You might try this:

Lock your PC using the Ctrl+Alt+Delete key combo. You should then see a blue Ease of Access icon down in the bottom left of your screen. Click on it and untick the See more contrast in colors (High Contrast) option. Unlock the PC and see if that has fixed it. A Guy

 

[OpLickem]

Thanks for the reply and suggestion. Unfortunately that didn't do anything. I had originally just used the start menu search and typed in "Ease of Access" to get to the Ease of Access Centre window but have also tried the Ease of Access button in the Ctrl + Alt + Del menu and neither has worked.

I'm still stuck in High Contrast mode and haven't gotten a fix yet so any more suggestions would be much appreciated.

 

[A Guy]

We are assuming you are indeed still in High Contrast mode because Chrome thinks so, and you see an actual difference in your desktop. I think next I would try running the System File Checker and see if it finds and corrects any problems. You have indeed done the right steps to switch off the high contrast. You might try a different Aero theme and/or switch wallpapers and back but we are trying to fix an anomaly rather then make a normal windows change.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html

A Guy

 

[OpLickem]

Awesome suggestion for fixing my settings but unfortunately, the System File Checker didn't find anything. I had first ran a /sfc verifyonly to see if anything would be found but nothing came up. I then ran the /sfc scannow command three times (since the instructions on this site said it could take multiple times to find and fix everything) and each scan resulted it nothing being found. I'm going to include a screenshot of my scan results.

I have tried all of the Aero themes now and had even tried switching to one of the High Contrast themes and then back to an Aero one and nothing happened. My old theme from when everything worked was saved and I tried switching directly to that and even tried recreating it from the generic Windows Aero theme and it wasn't fixed. When I tried using a different desktop wallpaper, it was also distorted. I used one of the sample pictures included in the My Pictures folder and the colours (particularly the dark shades) turned out distorted and choppy just like the desktop wallpaper that I always used.

It appears that I am still stuck in High Contrast and no further research about allowing Livestream's Procaster to change the Windows theme as resulted it anything. This appears to be a really sticky situation. If you have any other ideas, I'm open to trying them and really appreciate all of your help!

 

[A Guy]

I have little time during the week. I will post to our Gurus and see if anyone has any ideas.

A Guy

 

[Capt.Jack Sparrow]

Hello there!

Try this article and see if it works Disable Sticky Keys and High Contrast - Wiki

 

[OpLickem]

Thank you very much, A Guy. I will keep watch for your posts.

Capt.Jack, I tried what they asked me to do in the Wiki page but I'm not sure if I did it right. I created a .txt document on my desktop, copy and pasted the text they told me to, renamed the file to .vbs (so the full name went from Script.txt to Script.vbs) and then logged off and on my user account. My screen seemed to have refreshed a couple of times after I had created the script. Once, just after it was changed to .vbs and again when I logged off. It seems that it did something but I'm not sure if I should have this .vbs file in a specific folder for it to work proper?

So far, I tried images on my desktop again after creating the script and they are still the same. It's looking more and more like a reformat job. :/

 

[F5ing]

Did you run the vbs file after you created it? In what folder did you create it in?

 

[OpLickem]

Sorry again for the delay. Work has me so busy.

I don't know how to run a .vbs and I had only created it on my desktop. I didn't know where to put it or what to do with it.

 

[F5ing]

Right click, select Run (maybe run as admin if necessary).

 

[Help Me 2]

Turn Hi Contrast mode on/off

Looked a long time to find out in windows 7 the keyboard link to turn Hi contrast on/off is Alt-Shift-Print Scrn .... Hope that helps

 

[Help Me 2]

Turn High Contrast mode on/off

You might try making sure that your keyboard hotkeys are on/selected, then try the alt-shift-print screen option again ... ... luck to you