Advanced Appearance Settings - Backup and Restore in Windows

    Advanced Appearance Settings - Backup and Restore in Windows

    Advanced Appearance Settings - Backup and Restore in Windows

    How to Backup and Restore Advanced Appearance Settings in Windows
    Published by
    Designer Media Ltd


    How to Backup and Restore Advanced Appearance Settings in Windows


       Information
    The advanced appearance settings is part of each user account's own personalization settings. This would include changing the size, color, and fonts used for items in Windows.

    This tutorial will show you how to back up your advanced appearance settings to be able to restore or apply to any user account in Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8.
       Note
    All advanced appearance settings for a single user are stored in the three registry keys below. This is what the downloaded .bat file below will automatically back up for you as .reg files.
    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Colors
    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\Colors
    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics
       Tip
    While Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 doesn't include advanced appearance settings anymore, you could back up your settings in Windows 7, then restore and apply them to a user account in Windows 8.


    EXAMPLE: Advanced Appearance Settings
    Advanced Appearance Settings - Backup and Restore in Windows-advanced-apearance-settings.png
    Here's How:

    1. Click/tap on the Download button below to download the .bat file below, then run it.
    Backup_Advanced_Appearance_Settings.bat



    Download

    2. If prompted, click on Run.
    NOTE: If you like, you can stop getting the Run prompt by unblocking the downloaded .bat file.

    3. You will now have a Advanced-Appearance-Settings-Backup folder on your desktop containing the .reg files below that are the backups of your advanced appearance settings.
    • Colors_Backup.reg = Only the two "Colors" registry key locations combined to one .reg file. This is for when you only want to restore the color settings.
    • WindowMetrics_Backup.reg = Only the "WindowMetrics" registry key backup. This is for when you only want to restore the WindowMetrics settings.
    • Complete_Advanced_Appearance_Settings_Backup.reg = All advanced appearance settings (Colors and WindowsMetrics) backed up to one .reg file.

    Advanced Appearance Settings - Backup and Restore in Windows-advanced-apearance-settings-backup.png
       Note
    To restore your advanced appearance settings:

    1) While in any user account you want to use the settings for, double click on the .reg file(s) to merge it. The backup .reg files can be used in Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8.

    2) If prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC-Windows 7/8) or Continue (UAC-Vista), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

    3) Log out and in, or restart the computer to apply the advanced appearance settings to that user account.






    That's it,
    Shawn


    Related Tutorials




  2. derloopkat
    Posts : 2
    Windows 8.1 x64
       New #1

    Sorry but it didn't work for me. I have Windows 8.1 and generated the scripts in Windows 7. Nothing happened. There is no "Advanced Appearance Settings" and the settings inserted in Windows register were ignored by Windows 8.1.
      My Computer
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  4. Brink
    Posts : 72,052
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
    Thread Starter
       New #2

    Hello Derloopkat, and welcome to Seven Forums.

    The settings will not be applied unless you are using a high contrast theme in Windows 8.1.
      My Computer
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  5. derloopkat
    Posts : 2
    Windows 8.1 x64
       New #3

    Brink said:
    Hello Derloopkat, and welcome to Seven Forums.

    The settings will not be applied unless you are using a high contrast theme in Windows 8.1.
    Is it possible to prevent "high contrast themes" from affecting all Windows applications? For example web page contents don't look the same and can't be read in some cases. I'd like it to behave as other themes.
      My Computer
    Quote Quote

  6. Brink
    Posts : 72,052
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
    Thread Starter
       New #4

    Not that I'm aware of. It's a global setting.
      My Computer
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