Can I change the colors of the Customize window or the popup menu?

You can choose Quick Access Popup colors for Customize window and other dialog boxes. You can also change the popup menu background color (see About menu colors, below).

Note: QAP Theme colors are not supported when using the Windows Dark Mode. See: Does QAP support Windows dark mode?

Colors are managed using “themes”. The available themes are listed in the Options dialog box, General tab. Themes can be edited or added in the QAP settings file. Here are the instructions if you want to edit or add themes.

1) Open the quickaccesspopup.ini file

See How can I edit the file QuickAccessPopup.ini?

2) Add the code for the new theme

At the end of the .ini file, add your theme following this syntax:

[Gui-New Theme]
WindowColor=E0E0E0
TextColor=000000
ListviewBackground=FFFFFF
ListviewText=000000
MenuBackgroundColor=FFFFFF


Replace “New Theme” with a name of your choice (use only letters, numbers and spaces – no special characters) and color codes with your own colors. You can use this color picker to select your colors.

3) Under the [Global] ini file section, update the list of themes offered in the Options window:

AvailableThemes=Grey|Yellow|Light Blue|Light Red|Light Green|New Theme

Again, replace “New Theme” with the name of the new theme (exact same name as in step 2).

4) Choose your new theme

Save the QuickAccessPopup.ini file and restart Quick Access Popup. Select your theme in the Options dialog box, General tab. That’s it!

About menu colors
Color management capabilities are limited by QAP’s development framework. Especially for menu background color (the MenuBackgroundColor value above), note that the color of menu text cannot be changed. Since the text must stay black, dark color background should be avoided for menus. Also, the background color behind menu icons cannot be changed.

Why these limitations? QAP could offer more flexibility. But this would be done at the cost of completely redrawing menus instead of using the standard basic Windows command to build menus. This is not in my plan to do it.

About Windows themes
QAP themes has been designed with the “normal” Windows theme (as selected in Windows Settings, Personalisation, Themes). QAP themes may not work well with some Windows themes. If you use Windows themes, you should choose the QAP theme named Windows that will not interfere with Windows themes