If you are using the light theme on your computer, you will find that the Start, Taskbar, and Action Center items in the Color Settings menu are grayed out. This means that you cannot change it in the settings. The reason it was disabled is because if Windows allowed you to change the accent color of these elements in a light theme, those elements may not appear as expected on your screen.
However, if you need to work with this option and want it to be enabled, there are several ways to do it. Basically, you can just go into the Settings app and turn on the setting and it will activate it for you.
You can enable this option for both standard and custom themes, but the steps are slightly different for each theme type.
Fix Gray Start, Taskbar, and Action Center option with default theme
One of the quickest ways to fix this option and make it modifiable is to enable the default theme that comes preloaded on your Windows computer. Once you do this, you will find that this setting is no longer grayed out and you can change its settings.
- Place your cursor in the Cortana search box, enter “Settings” and click the Settings app when you see it in the search results.
- On the next screen, you will need to find and select the “Personalization” option. The option you want is found here.
- When the menu opens, look at the left sidebar, find and select the option called Themes. This will allow you to apply the new theme to your PC.
- You will see various themes that you can use on your computer. You want to find the one that says Windows and click on it. The theme will be immediately applied to your PC.
- Now if you go to a screen where this parameter was previously shaded, you will find that it is no longer gray and you can actually work with it.
While this method does its job in a few clicks, it actually has a limitation. As you can see from the steps above, you need to apply the default Windows theme to your computer.
If you don’t want to do this, you might want to look for another method to enable this setting in the current theme.
– /
Enable Gray Start, Taskbar, and Action Center option in custom theme
If you don’t want to leave the current theme, but still want the above option to be enabled, there is actually a method that will allow you to do this.
Basically, it asks you to change the color scheme of your theme, which then activates the greyed out option on your computer.
- Search for the Settings app using Cortana’s search box and launch it when you see it. in search results.
- Click the Personalize option on the main application screen.
- In the left sidebar of your screen, select the option labeled Themes. Then find and click the theme you want to use on your PC.
- Now select the Colors option in the left sidebar. This will allow you to change the color settings of your theme.
- On the next screen, you will see a preview of your theme and a dropdown menu below it. Click this menu and select the Custom option. It allows you to specify your own color settings for your theme.
- Two new menus will appear on the screen. You want to focus on what says: Select Windows default mode. From this menu, select the Dark option.
- You can now scroll down and you will notice that this parameter is no longer grayed out.
Every time you change the theme, make sure you enable the option shown in the steps above so that it doesn’t get disabled.
Update screen drivers to fix the problem
The above should solve the problem for most users. However, on rare occasions if that didn’t work for you, you can try updating your display drivers to see if that helps fix the problem.
- Use the Cortana search box to search for and launch the Device Manager utility.
- You will see a list of all peripherals connected to your computer. You want to find and click the option labeled Display Adapters.
- Then right-click on your video adapter in the list and select Update Driver.
- Follow the instructions on the screen to update the display drivers.
- You will need to restart your computer after updating the drivers.
- Open the Settings app and you will see that the Start, Taskbar, and Action Center options no longer appear grayed out.
–
