change colour of task bar and window title bars

All of the grey variants in 'Colors' make the Taskbar really dark/black, but ever since Windows 7 I've had a light grey taskbar so it feels like I've lost a very old and trusted friend.

I've tried Winaero Tweaker but I've only managed to get it to change my explorer accent colour- the taskbar stays stubbornly black

Any help would be awesome, this is annoying me an unreasonable amount (I should be able to pick any color or shade I want, and I am sad)

I just tried this registry tweak without success - I was so sure I'd found a solution!

Does anybody have any ideas? I just want to lighten it up, I feel like I'm running emo OS

Try here,...

How To Change Taskbar Color In Windows 10

Try here,...

How To Change Taskbar Color In Windows 10

Hey mate,

Thanks for replying - unfortunately, for all colours, they're all limited to being very dark - there's no way to change it to a lighter colour in either method. Not sure why this is, it's just impossible with default Windows 10

Hi, found this on "How to Geek"
open the old "run" dialogue box and copy/paste this command into it.
"rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL desk.cpl,Advanced,@Advanced" [without quotes]
It opens the old colour selector from previous versions.
It works like a treat on my Windows 10 Version 10.0.10240 Build 10240.
My taskbar and windows title bar are a nice shade of sky blue

Hey mate,

Thanks for posting! Great trick to know.

Unforunately, as you can see, changing colour and intensity and saturation and hue works for my explorer title bars, but not for my taskbar (I tried this with other colours apart from grey, too)

Can anyone confirm that opening "rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL desk.cpl,Advanced,@Advanced" from the Run box allows them to lighten their taskbar colour? If so, it must be a problem on my end

Hi.
You may need to install this "colour theme" first. [I have it installed] Replace those white title bars in Windows 10 with this colors theme | Windows Central.
I also have StartIsBack installed and can change the taskbar colours from that [paid for programme, but only costs equivalent of £1.93 for life]
I suppose Classic Shell [free] will do the same.
Anyway, between them my task bar colour can be changed at will. Now if only I could change the size of just the default text [already changed the font]

Check out Classic Shell. Classic Shell - Start menu and other Windows enhancements It is a replacment start menu that I like better than the default and it has an option to change the color and transparency. You can keep the Original Windows 10 start menu as your default too.

Check out Classic Shell. Classic Shell - Start menu and other Windows enhancements It is a replacment start menu that I like better than the default and it has an option to change the color and transparency. You can keep the Original Windows 10 start menu as your default too.

Installing classic Shell - Start Menu and going to Windows 10 settings is the only method I've found that works. Thanks - you solved it!

You can keep the Original Windows 10 start menu as your default too.

how is that possible? i want to have a light taskbar while keeping the w10 start menu, but any options i try, classic shell throws its own ugly menu into my face