This tutorial will show you how to change the color of highlighted text for your account in Windows 10 and Windows 11.
When you highlight text in system windows and dialogs in Windows, the highlighted text color will be white by default.
If you change your theme, the highlighted text color will be changed to what is included in the theme.
The translucent selection rectangle color will affect how your highlighted text color looks blended with it.
EXAMPLE: highlighted text color
PART ONE
Select and Get RGB Color(s)
1 Open the Paint (mspaint.exe) app.
2 Click/tap on the Edit Colors button in the ribbon on the far right. (see screenshot below)
3 Select a basic color (ex: "green") you want.
4 You can adjust the slider up and down to adjust the color contrast to what you want if needed.
The current color preview will let you see how your selected and adjusted color will look.
5 When finished, make note of the RGB (Red Green Blue) numbers (ex: "117 249 77") for your color.
6 When finished, you can close the Paint app if you like.
PART TWO
Change Color of Highlighted Text
1 Open Registry Editor (regedit.exe).
2 Navigate to the key below in the left pane of Registry Editor. (see screenshot below)
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Colors
3 In the right pane of the Colors key, double click/tap on the HilightText string value (REG_SZ) to modify it. (see screenshot above)
4 Type the RGB (ex: "117 249 77") from Part One for the color you want (ex: "green"), and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)
Note the space between the RGB numbers.
The default highlighted text color RGB is 255 255 255 for white.
5 Either sign out and sign in or restart the computer to apply.
That's it,
Shawn Brink
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