Author: Martin Brinkmann

When I was young, I studied German, History and English at Essen University in Germany. I worked in computer support for several years at the time to help other computer users when they ran into issues. Writing started out as a passion project, as I wanted to help more users and not just the ones that I handled in support. This lead to the founding of Ghacks Technology News in 2005. First, as a side-project, but shortly thereafter as a full-time project as the site's popularity exploded. I sold Ghacks to Softonic some years ago, but stayed on as Editor. You can still read my articles on the site. I do publish on Betanews as well. In recent years, I started to write and publish technology books, including my latest book "Windows 11 From Beginner to Advanced", which is available on Amazon. I'm also a freelance writer for the German publisher Gamestar. Chipp.in is my newest project. I want to use it to talk about my book projects, sell my books directly, and write about technology, as this is what interests me.

This Chrome AI tool submits all URLs and titles of open tabs to Google

Posted on January 25, 2024January 25, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

It seems like some companies have entered into the “adding the most AI tools into products” competition. Microsoft seems to be winning, with its pushing of AI into lots of its products. The company introduced Copilot Toolbar for Android recently, and many future Windows devices will even feature a dedicated Copilot key on the keyboard.

Google launched Chrome 121 earlier this week and announced new AI tools that it included in the browser. These are limited to a small subset of users at the time but will roll out to more in the coming weeks and months.

One of the tools is called Tab Organizer. Google promises that the AI tool helps users bring order to their tabs. It does so by finding tabs suitable to be put into tab groups.

Tab groups is an excellent tab management feature. Open tabs may be placed into groups, or created there directly. A group can be collapsed, so that it occupies just a single tab on Chrome’s tab bar, even if it holds dozens or hundreds of tabs.

Tab Organizer

Google announced Tab Organizer on the official company blog The Keyword as part of three AI tools for Chrome.

Google writes: “With Tab Organizer, Chrome will automatically suggest and create tab groups based on your open tabs. This can be particularly helpful if you’re working on several tasks in Chrome at the same time, like planning a trip, researching a topic and shopping.”

The feature is available to a selection of users from the United States only at the time. These users need to be signed-in to Google Chrome and they need to enable the Tab Organizer feature first.

This is done by selecting Menu > Experimental AI > Try out experimental AI features > Tab Organizer and then selecting relaunch.

Tab Organizer is then accessible via the Tab Search icon in Chrome’s main toolbar, by right-clicking on tabs and selecting “Organize similar tabs”, or through the Chrome Menu.

Google’s AI will then suggest to put tabs into specific groups. Users may remove tabs from the list of suggestions and rename the tab group for better identification. A click on “create group” creates the tab group based on the selections.

The huge privacy issue

What Google’s announcement on The Keyword blog does not reveal is that Google collects all page titles and URLs when the feature is used.

This is confirmed on a Google Chrome Help page:

When you use Tab organizer, the page titles and URLs of open tabs in the active window and your feedback are collected. As described in our Google Privacy Policy, this information is used to improve this feature, which includes generative model research and machine learning technologies.

In other words, Google knows about any URL and page title open at the time. Since Tab Organizer requires to be signed-in, it could also link the information to the Google account.

Google says that human reviewers may look at the data as part of the review process.

A policy is available for Enterprise and Education users to block the data collecting from happening. No such option is provided for other users.

Closing Words

Most Chrome users may want to avoid the feature, unless they have no problems that it submits all URLs and page titles to Google.

While the feature can be useful, especially if hundreds of tabs need to get organized, it may be better in most cases to use the feature manually instead to avoid any leaks to Google.

With AI tools, it seems to become necessary to ask about privacy implications first before even considering using a tool.

Now You: what is your take on this?

KB5034203 prepares Windows 10 for the EU’s Digital Markets Act

Posted on January 24, 2024January 24, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Microsoft published KB5034203 on January 23, 2024. The preview update for Windows 10 is an optional update. All of its changes will be included in the February 2024 cumulative update for the operating system.

Most Windows 10 users may not want to install the update, as it should be considered beta. The update addresses several issues that users may experience. This includes a bug that causes Windows to recognize some “single-function printers” as scanners. Another issue may bring back the Internet Explorer shortcut from the dead.

Digital Markets Act changes in Windows 10

Microsoft’s Windows 10 operating system is a core platform service of a gatekeeper according to the European Union. The Digital Markets Act (DMA) defines gatekeepers as companies that “provide an important gateway between businesses and consumers in relation to core platform services”.

In other words, services that give companies control and an unfair advantage.

Microsoft revealed in November 2023 that it would implement certain changes in its Windows operating system to “comply with the Digital Markets Act in the European Economic Area”.

These changes included the ability to remove “all apps in Windows”, remove Web Search from Microsoft Bing, and feeds in the Windows Widgets Board.

It is important to understand that the changes are in response to the DMA, but not coordinated with the EU. It is possible that Microsoft may need to introduce other changes to Windows in the coming months.

KB5034203 for Windows 10

The changelog includes the following paragraph that confirms these changes for Windows 10 version 22H2.

Microsoft has been working to ensure compliance with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) in the European Economic Area (EEA). To learn more, see Previewing changes in Windows to comply with the Digital Markets Act in the European Economic Area. These changes will gradually roll out to Windows 10, version 22H2 PCs in the EEA to be compliant by March 6, 2024.

The update introduces the changes in Windows 10 version 22H2, but it does not enable them at this point. Microsoft plans enable the functionality in the coming weeks using staged rollouts.

Windows 10 users who are not on Windows 10 version 22H2 won’t benefit from these changes. Updates to Windows 10 version 22H2 are available.

Closing Words

The changes that Microsoft rolls out are welcome ones. The ability to uninstall Edge or Bing Search will give users more choice. Most may not remove the browser or Bing Search, but users who want to do so, may do so after the change lands.

Whether the changes are enough to get EU approval remains to be seen. It is certainly possible that the EU is asking Microsoft to make additional changes to its operating system.-

Other companies identified as gatekeepers have also announced changes. Google is blocking data sharing between some of its services by default, and Meta announced changes to Facebook, Instagram and Messenger. All these changes are only available to users from the EEA, the European Economic Area.

Microsoft Edge and Bing insignificant for regulation in the EU

Posted on January 24, 2024January 24, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

The European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) will come into force in March 2024. The EU identified several products and services as gatekeepers. These fall under the new regulation.

One of the main goals is to level the playing field and avoid abuses of power. Six companies and 22 services and products are gatekeepers according to the EU.

The EU opened four market investigations into Bing, Edge, Microsoft Advertising and iMessage to determine if these services will be added to the list of gatekeepers.

A Bloomberg report now claims that all four won’t be considered gatekeepers by the European Union. The report cites “unnamed officials at the EU as “people familiar with the matter” as its source.

According to Bloomberg, the four mentioned services are “dominant enough to be hit by the regulation”. While some of the services are popular in other regions of the world, Apple’s iMessage or Microsoft’s Bing are popular choices in the United States, they are not dominant enough in the European Union.

Microsoft Bing, for instance, has a market share of less than 4% in Europe according to Statcounter. Similarly, Microsoft’s Edge web browser has a market share of less than 6% in Europe according to the company.

While these stats are not 100% accurate, they make the argument for adding these services to the list of gatekeepers difficult.

The final verdict is expected in February 2024.

No free pass for Microsoft

Microsoft’s Windows operating system and its LinkedIn social network are gatekeepers, according to the EU.

Microsoft announced changes that it plans to make available to users from the European Union and European Economic Area exclusively in the coming months.

The changes give users control over certain features of the operating system. They include the ability to remove Microsoft Edge and Bing Search in Windows, among other changes.

Microsoft’s Windows operating system ships with Microsoft Edge as the default browser and Bing Search included. Some links open only in Edge by default, but this is changing soon for users from the EU.

To sum it up, Windows users from the EU and EEA will gain control over Edge and Bing, even though both services are not (likely) considered gatekeepers.

The EU’s target is Windows. Specifically, Microsoft’s use of the operating system to favor its services, Bing Search and Edge are just two examples, over others.

Would Microsoft’s web browser stand where it is standing right now market share wise, if not for the integration and pushing in Windows?

Closing Words

Some Google and Meta products and services are also considered gatekeepers. Meta announced this week that it will give EU users control over data sharing between some of its services.

Google too is disabling data sharing between its services by default for users from the EU.

It is unfortunate that the rest of the world is not getting the same improvements.

Now You: what is your take on gatekeepers and the DMA?

Unlink Facebook, Instagram and Messenger accounts in the EU

Posted on January 23, 2024January 23, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Facebook, Instagram and Messenger users from the EU, EEA and Switzerland may soon unlink their accounts to stop data sharing.

Meta, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp parent company, announced that users from the EU, EEA and Switzerland will soon have the option to unlink some of their services. The announcement includes some surprises, among them an option to unlink Facebook data from Marketplace activities, and Facebook Messenger from Facebook data.

The improvement comes as a response to Europe’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). The EU identified gatekeeper companies that dominate certain services on the Internet or on user devices. New regulations for these companies aim to improve user rights and competition in the market.

Google users from the EU may also unlink services to stop the automatic exchange of data between them. Now, it is Meta that announces similar functionality for some of its main services. The company says that it has “assembled a large cross-functional team staffed by senior employees from around the globe and across our entire family of apps” to introduce these changes to the platforms.

Meta products affected by the change

Meta mentions Facebook and Instagram only in the announcement. WhatsApp, also owned by Meta, is also considered a core platform service by the DMA, but not mentioned by Meta.

Facebook and Instagram users who connected their accounts will see an option to unlink these in the coming weeks. They can:

Keep the two accounts linked and have information shared between Facebook and Instagram.
Unlink the accounts to manage them as separate accounts. This ends data sharing between the two accounts.

Facebook Messenger users may choose to use Messenger as a standalone product. They may create a new account in the application to use it as a standalone messenger app.

Core services, including private messaging and chat, and voice and video calling are available then.

Facebook Marketplace users may unlink Marketplace from their Facebook information. Users who do that may continue to use Marketplace to buy and sell products. Communication between buyer and seller, on the other hand, happens exclusively via email and no longer Facebook Messenger or Chat.

Facebook users who play games on the site may block games from accessing their Facebook information. This limits availability of games. Only “some single-player games” may be played in that case. Multiplayer games, personalized game suggestions and in-game purchases are not available in these cases.

Closing Words

Facebook plans to roll out these changes in the coming weeks. Only users from the European Union, European Economic Area and Switzerland will get these options. The changes will roll out gradually and users will be notified about them once they reach their accounts or devices.

Grayjay: follow video creators on multiple platforms

Posted on January 22, 2024January 22, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Grayjay is a new application for Google Android devices to follow video creators on multiple platforms.

Depending on how active you are when it comes to streaming media, you may know that many video creators publish content to different platforms. A basic example is a Twitch streamer who also publishes some footage on YouTube.

Keeping up with just a single creator may require following them on different platforms. Follow more and add more platforms and it can get complicated quickly.

Grayjay set out to fix this. It supports a good number of platforms already. Besides YouTube and Twitch, Grayjay supports PeerTube, Odysee, Kick, Patreon, Rumble, Nebula and SoundCloud. Support for Subscribestar is under development already and there is a good chance that more platforms are added in the future.

The app does not require an account. Since it supports the downloading of videos, it is not available on Google Play. You may download it for Android from the developer website.

One effect of using Grayjay is that you can watch videos without ads. While you can block ads on YouTube and other platforms, it is another benefit of using the app.

Using Grayjay

YouTube is the only source by default. You may change that with a click on Sources and the selection of one or multiple sources. All of these are shown in the main interface. The developer notes that adding more sources may impact loading times, as videos from different platforms need to be loaded.

Tap on any video to play it right then and there in Grayjay. This is useful already, especially since Grayjay supports a queue, custom playlists and watch later functionality. The option to download any video is also provided. The downloads menu lists options to change the quality of the video before downloading it.

The main feature of Grayjay is its follow option. You may subscribe (follow) on any video page or by selecting the channel name. Options to enable notifications and follow only streams or videos are provided.

You need to subscribe to sources individually. There is no option at the moment to select a creator and follow them on all platforms that they publish or stream on.

Still, this is one time process to follow creators on multiple platforms. You may create groups for subscriptions to improve organization. Options include creating groups for individual creators or themed groups based on interests.

The app supports imports and exports of data. This allows you to share subscriptions across multiple devices or migrate subscriptions to new devices.

Verdict

Grayjay appears to be free to use at the moment. The app is open source and you may access the source on Gitlab. There is a “buy” link under “more” in the app that is asking for a payment of €9.99 plus tax. Several developers work fulltime on the app according to the page. The developers hope that enough users find their app useful to pay for it and make it sustainable.

Grayjay works well already. It would benefit from additional features, including the ability to follow a creator on all platforms with just a tap. While that may be difficult to automate, it could maintain a database of developer accounts on various platforms and use crowdsourcing to maintain it.

All in all, it is an interesting app that shows a lot of promise.

Microsoft Edge for Android’s new Copilot Toolbar

Posted on January 21, 2024January 21, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Microsoft has renamed its browser for Android recently to Microsoft Edge: AI Browser. The browser is getting an infusion of Copilot and AI features. One of the latest is the Copilot Toolbar.

Available in Microsoft Edge Canary only at the time of writing, it is designed to give users even quicker access to Copilot.

Copilot is the main term that Microsoft uses for AI in its products. There is Windows Copilot, Microsoft 365 Copilot, and a large number of other Copilots. There is even a standalone Microsoft Copilot app for Android.

The mobile Edge browser supports Copilot already. Since it is the “AI browser”, it ships with Copilot included. This base version works similarly to Copilot on the web, but there are a few differences.

A tap on the prominent Copilot button opens the interface. You may use it to get a summary of the active webpage or communicate with the AI using text or voice input.

The Copilot Toolbar in Microsoft Edge: AI Browser

The Copilot Toolbar shows up at the bottom of webpages. It is placed on top of the main Edge toolbar.

It features two options currently: summarize and “ask me about this page”. Both open the main Copilot interface on selection. The first summarizes the webpage, the second offers information about the content on the page.

The toolbar feels a bit out of place. A tap on the Copilot button opens the interface of the AI as well. There you may also tap on the summary option to get it.

The toolbar saves you a single click. It is not overly useful. Microsoft, on the other hand, gets more eyes on Copilot.

The Copilot Toolbar offers some options. Tap on the three-dots next to it to get them. You may disable the toolbar “once”, “on this site” or “globally” using the menu.

Enable the Copilot Toolbar in Edge

The new toolbar is only available in Microsoft Edge Canary for Android. You need to enable it, as it is provided as an experimental flag only at this time:

Make sure Microsoft Edge Canary is up to date.
Load edge://flags in the browser’s address bar.
Search for Copilot Toolbar.
Set the status of the feature to Enabled.
Restart Microsoft Edge.

The toolbar shows up automatically on webpages and when PDF documents are loaded.

Closing Words

Microsoft pushes AI into all of its products. Some of the integrations feel like tests, to see what works and what does not. Copilot Toolbar is one of these. It does not offer much in terms of functionality.

The summary function is supported already. Considering that it takes a few seconds or sometimes more to get the AI to generate the summary, it may sometimes be faster to read the article by yourself.

This may not be true for very long articles, but it is necessary to verify the information the AI provides anyway.

How to back up Windows user profiles

Posted on January 20, 2024January 20, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Each Windows user has a user profile that holds customizations and personal files. Users may install software, download files or change the look and feel of Windows.

Backing up user profiles may not be something that most users are familiar with. There are full system backups after all, which include user profile data.

User backups may come in handy in some cases, however. Here are the two main cases:

To migrate a user profile from one Windows device or installation to another.
To back up a user profile for safekeeping.

Windows users who use a Microsoft account may have some of their customizations and files synced between devices. Not all data is synced on the other hand, including Win32 software installations or customizations of installed programs.

A backup of the user profile and the restoration of it on another device takes care of that.

Note that there are also specialized programs for copying settings. Appcopier is a free tool that does that. Note that Windows Backup backs up user data as well, but not much more.

Super Grate: back up Windows user profiles

Super Grate is a free open source tool for Windows to back up Windows user profiles and to restore the backups. Its main purpose is migrations from one device to another. It runs on Windows 7 to Windows 11 devices.

The program requires no installation. Just run the program after download to get started. Windows may throw a SmartScreen error, which you can skip. The application is safe to use. Note that Super Grate requires elevation.

The interface looks simple enough, but there is a roadblock for users who never worked with computer names and domains.

Backing up profiles

To back up a profile, it is necessary to enter the name, and optional domain, of the computer. Open Settings > System to get the name of the computer. It is listed at the top of the page.

Type the name of the computer into the source computer field and activate the “list source” button. The program will return all user-created profiles but no standard profiles.

The name, creation date and last modification date of each profile is listed by the app.

Select one or multiple profiles and activate the start button to back up these profiles. It may take some time to back up profiles. Much of it depends on the size of the profile. There is a progress bar that reveals the progress of the entire process.

Restoring profiles

Restoring a Windows user profile works similar to the backup process. Type the computer name into the destination computer field and hit the “list store” button afterwards. To restore on the same computer, type the computer name again.

Super Grate should return all backed up profiles. Select the profile that you want to restore and then Start to restore the user profile on the device.

Tip: you may rename a Windows user profile by right-clicking on it and selecting the “set destination user name” option from the context menu.

Full migrations

To migrate a user profile from one computer to another, it is necessary to fill out both the source and destination computer fields. These need to be different and connected to the same network.

Consult the official documentation for additional guidance. It includes information about using Active Directory, deleting profiles and more.

Verdict

Creating a backup of a Windows user profile is a simple task with Super Grate. It is a useful when you want to migrate the profile from one device to another, or for back up purposes.

User profiles may become corrupt, for instance after a virus attack or accidental deletions of important files.

How to remove YouTube Shorts permanently

Posted on January 19, 2024January 19, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

YouTube Shorts is an integral part of YouTube and very similar to videos on TikTok. Not every YouTube user likes the short video format and some may find it outright annoying.

There are several ways to remove the entire Shorts section and all Shorts videos from YouTube. Removing in this regard refers to hiding YouTube Shorts on the website. There are also tweaks for removing YouTube Shorts on mobile devices.

You have several options to remove YouTube Shorts:

Add a set of filters to content blockers.
Use a third-party YouTube frontend instead of the official website or app.
Install another browser extension that hides Shorts.

Using filters to disable Shorts on YouTube

One of the better options at your disposal is to add a set of filters to a content blocker. Most Internet users do not use content blockers. Designed primarily to block ads and prevent tracking, many content blockers support options to hide elements on websites.

Did you know that you may bypass ads on YouTube without an adblocker?

Probably the best content blocker extension right now is uBlock Origin (Chromium-based or Firefox). You may add the filters to other content blockers, provided that they support filters. Please note that you should never run multiple content blockers at the same time, as this may lead to all sorts of issues.

The filter list that you need to add to uBlock Origin is maintained on the Let’s Block It website. Your best option is to visit the linked webpage and click on the copy option to copy the entire list to the Clipboard.

Note: the list is updated when YouTube makes changes to Shorts. This is the reason why it is not pasted here.

Open the Dashboard of uBlock Origin to add the filters. Note that the icon may be hidden under an extension icon in the browser’s toolbar.

Switch to My Filters in the Dashboard. Here you find all custom filters added to the content blocker.

Paste the entire content of the Clipboard into the field. The instructions remove Shorts entirely from YouTube.

Complete the process with a click on the “apply changes” button at the top.

Visit YouTube, you may need to reload the website if already open, to test the filters. All Shorts content should no longer be visible on YouTube thanks to the filters.

Third-party YouTube frontends

Another option is to use frontends for YouTube. Good news is that these are available on desktop and mobile devices.

Frontends offer most of YouTube’s experience. You may watch any video posted on YouTube. Additional features, such as the option to download YouTube videos, may also be supported.

Here is a list of recommendations:

Invidious — A frontend for YouTube that is used by websites and also apps. There is no Shorts section on Invidious. Since it is web-based, you may access it from any device with a web browser.
NewPipe — NewPipe is an application for Android. It is updated regularly and supports a wide range of features. Besides watching videos in up to 4K, it also supports live streams, shorts, downloads and more. One of its features is the option to hide content that you are not interested in. You may use hide Shorts in NewPipe.

Using browser extensions

If you prefer to use standalone extensions, you may check out the Hide YouTube Shorts extension. This extension is available for Google Chrome, Firefox and other Chromium-based browsers.

Note that most Chromium-based browsers support extensions only on desktop and not on mobile.

Download the extension for Chrome / Chromium or Firefox, and you are all set. It removes YouTube Shorts automatically once installed.

Closing Words

You either like or dislike Shorts, there seems to be no middle ground in regards to the feature. While there is no native option to disable Shorts on YouTube, there are plenty of options to remove the content from the video hosting site.

How to properly extract Zip files on Windows 11

Posted on January 18, 2024January 18, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Zip archives are widely used on today’s Internet and on desktop computer systems. The Zip archive format is popular and used for distributing files, programs or saving space.

Archives contain one or more files. A Zip archive needs to be extracted, which is called unzipping.

Windows 11 supports the Zip archive format by default. It can extract contents of archives on the system. A third-party tool, like WinZip, WinRar or 7-Zip, is not required anymore for that purpose.

While it is a useful feature, it is far from perfect. Current versions of Windows 11 may be used to create and extract Zip archives. Windows 11 supports extracting other archive types, including Rar.

Last year, I ran benchmarks to find out how well the native functionality compared to that of popular archive apps. While it works, its performance is much slower than that of the tested third-party tools.

How to unzip files in Windows 11?

You may use the File Explorer context menu to extract archives. The option is available for all supported archive formats, including zip and rar.

Step 1: Open File Explorer on the system and navigate to the folder that contains the Zip archive. It may be in the Downloads folder if you have downloaded it from the Internet.

Step 2: Right-click on the Zip file and select the Extract all option from the menu that opens.

Step 3: A window opens. You may change the location the files will be extracted to. The default is a folder that matches the archive file’s name in the same location as the archive.

The option “show extracted files when complete” opens that folder. It is enabled by default, but can be unchecked.

Select Extract to unzip the archive to the selected folder. The process may take a while to complete.

How to view the contents of Zip archives

You may also open archives on Windows 11 before you extract them. This is useful if you want to see the files of the archive or access some of the files.

Double-click on the Zip archive in File Explorer to display its contents. File Explorer lists all folders and files that it contains.

You may browse them or use the built-in search feature to find specific files.

Your Options:

Double-click on any file to open it. This works only for files like .txt or .png that have a viewer on the system.
Right-click on a file or a selection to get options to copy, cut or delete it. Copy may be used to extract only the selected files. Cut is like copy, but it removes the file from the archive. Delete removes the file from the archive.
Select the “extract all” button in the toolbar to extract all files. This works similarly to extracting archives using the context menu.

Tip: You may edit the path in File Explorer to view any archive directly. Just add the archive’s name and file extension to it, e.g. C:\Users\Martin\Downloads\Test\iview466_plugins_x64.zip

Use of third-party tools to unzip files

Third-party archive apps offer several advantages over the native functionality of Windows 11. Apart from the already mentioned speed, which translates to minutes or hours saved when extracting and creating archives, third-party apps support advanced features.

Advantages include support for additional archive formats, better archive creation support and more.

Extracting archives works identical once the third-party app is installed on a Windows 11 device.

Right-click on the archive and select the extract option. If you have installed WinRAR, you select WinRAR > Extract Files.

Command line and PowerShell options

Most Windows users do not need to extract Zip archives from the command line or PowerShell. The process is not faster. In fact, most users may find it complicated, as it requires parameters.

Still, some may find the information useful.

Command Prompt

Open a Command Prompt window in the location of the archive file. If you are in File Explorer, replace the location path with CMD and press the Enter-key. This launches a Command Prompt window in the location.

Now run the command tar -xf ARCHIVENAME, e.g. tar -xf iview466_plugins_x64.zip.

This extracts the archive to the current directory.

PowerShell

You may open a PowerShell prompt from Start. Just open Start, type PowerShell and select the result.

Navigate to the folder of the Zip archive using the CD command.

Once there run the command Expand-Archive ARCHIVENAME to extract it, e.g. Expand-Archive iview466_plugins_x64.zip.

Closing Words

Third-party software offers several advantages over the built-in Zip extraction capabilities of Windows 11. In fact, the only advantage Windows 11’s native functionality has is that it is available immediately.

If you extract archives regularly or need advanced options, then you may want to use third-party tools for that.

Now You: do you use archive apps?

How to customize colors in Windows 11

Posted on January 17, 2024January 17, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Microsoft’s Windows 11 operating system supports a wide range of color settings. Users may customize the color for window borders and title bars, the Start button and the taskbar.

Microsoft distinguishes between color modes, which refers to dark, light and custom modes, and individual color settings of each mode. This has not changed in the recently released Windows 11 version 23H2 update.

The very first choice that users of Windows 11 have to make is whether to enable light, dark or custom mode.

Here is how they differ:

Light Mode — designed to work well during daylight hours and in bright environments. This mode supports accent colors for window title bars and borders.
Dark Mode — designed for low-light environments, e.g., at night. Changes the colors of the Start Menu, Taskbar and Action Center, supports changing colors for windows borders and title bars.
Custom Mode — custom settings that may mix Dark and Light mode settings.

Changing Color Modes on Windows 11 devices

Follow these step to set the color mode on a Windows 11 system:

Open Start and select Settings. You may also use the keyboard shortcut Windows-I to open the Settings app this way.
Select Personalization in the sidebar menu and then Colors on the page that opens.
Activate the menu next to “choose your mode” and pick one of the available options. These are light, dark and custom.

Changing Light Mode colors

Select Light under “choose your mode” to enable light mode. If the mode was set to custom or dark, you should notice a return to lighter colors immediately.

Scroll down to Accent color. You may set it to manual or automatic. Set it to manual to pick one of the listed “recent colors” or “Windows colors”, or select “View colors” beneath the options to pick a color from the entire color range.

The selected color is set automatically. Note that the option to show the accent color on Start or the taskbar is disabled in light mode.

You may enable or disable “show accent color on title bars and windows borders” to show the selected color there.

If you set the color to automatic, Windows picks the color based on the wallpaper or open applications. Some users may find this confusing, as the color changes regularly when automatic is selected.

Changing Dark Mode colors

Dark mode supports a wider range of color options than light mode. It is unclear why Microsoft decided to restrict light mode in this regard.

After you have selected Dark as the preferred color mode on the system, you may also set the accent color to manual or automatic. The same color options are provided in this regard.

The accent color is shown on the title bars and windows borders by default. You may also enable “show accent color on Start and taskbar” to show it there as well.

Custom Color Mode

This mode gives you the option to set light or dark color modes for Windows and apps individually. You may set Windows to dark mode and apps to light mode, or vice versa.

How to configure less distracting color settings

Depending on how you configure colors on Windows, you may get a colorful system or one that is not as distracting. If you work on Windows 11, you may want to tone down colors on the system.

You may do so in all three color modes. The main recommendation is to disable all other features that Windows supports.

These are:

Transparency effects — these make Windows and surfaces translucent.
Show accent color on Start and taskbar — to show the taskbar and Start in a single color that uses the selected color mode as its base.
Show accent color on title bars and windows borders — to hide accent colors on windows.

It does not really matter which accent color you select, or if you set it to automatic or manual, if you disable all other settings on the page.

Now You: what is your preferred color mode?