Help! How did I do this?

I heard from a couple of readers who’d made some changes to their PC and now weren’t sure how to fix them.

“How in the world did I do this!!!! ??? LOL It’s hard to change back if I don’t know what I did. I know it’s somewhere in settings some how. My task bar is black also !I have played with changing desk top before so I can navigate that. But wow this is not good!!!”

dark-mode-settings.jpg

A second reader has this question:

“Tried suggestion to apply bold contrast and lost all my Screen Savers and Desktop Pictures. How do I shut down Bold Contrast and get my pictures back?”

Nothing can be quite as alarming as changing a setting and then finding out you don’t like it. That’s why it’s often a good idea to make a quick note of changes that you’re trying out. For example, if you’re using Windows, just open Notepad and type in what you did in case it turns out you don’t like it.  Also, nearly any Tech Tip can be undone just by following the instructions in reverse.

For visual changes like the ones described above, you can bet they will be under Settings. Either under Personalization or Ease of Access.

personalization-ease.jpg

The dark background in the screenshot is an example of the Windows 10 Dark Mode. So let’s open Personalization. 

Select Colors. Your color options will open.

colors-dark.jpg

Scroll down to the bottom and tick Light under Choose your default app mode.

light-dark-switch.jpg

As for the second question:

“Tried suggestion to apply bold contrast and lost all my Screen Savers and Desktop Pictures. How do I shut down Bold Contrast and get my pictures back?”

I’m going to assume you went with a high-contrast theme here. You’ll need to open Ease of Access under Settings.

ease of access

Select High Contrast.

high-contrast

In the center panel, slide High Contrast to the Off position.

high-contrast-off.jpg

You can also use the keyboard shortcut Alt + left Shift + Print Screen to turn High Contrast on and off.

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