Visual Studio Color Theme Editor

Free

Allows users to customize the color palette used for menus, toolbars, tabs, title bars, and other environment colors.

(119) Review
Visual Studio
2010
Download (343,141)
8/20/2010
1.3
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Reviews (119)
Q and A (42)
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by versute | June 17 2010

by vaughanje | June 16 2010

by Kai Wang | June 09 2010

by IHeartRobots | June 07 2010

Awesome work!

by Rajnis | June 07 2010

that's what I was looking for. Thanks.

by versute1 | June 02 2010

by fbanyai | May 23 2010

This is exactly what I was looking for! Nice and simple!

Thanks!

Flávio Banyai

by Mai Omar Desouki | May 21 2010

realy.. good one.

thanks.

with my regards;
Mai Omar
Senior Solutions Developer
blog: http://maiomar.itegyptcorp.com

by Fırat Esmer | May 19 2010

Works Great! Thanks for this great extension.

by Iftekhar Ahmed | May 19 2010

by Philip Wolfe | May 18 2010

Absolutely the best extension I have come across. Thank you for build that which should already be in the product!

Bye bye blues, hello gray!

This is by far the best thing i've seen in a while. Awesome!

by David Lowndes | May 15 2010

Ah, thank you - at last a chance to see the UI without it shouting its colour scheme at me.

by Micky D | May 10 2010

by Dario Hendrix | April 29 2010

Works great with VS 2010 Ultimate.

by igorfrance | April 26 2010

This extension is absolutely fantastic! It should have been built-in to a certain degree, but hey - with this is totally doesn't matter. Great work!

Thanks,
Igor France

by Tres White | April 21 2010

This doesn't seem to work for a Team Explorer only installation.

by Pavel Minaev [MSFT] | April 20 2010

by akuma_chang | April 19 2010

Well Done~~

by Chris Pietschmann | April 17 2010

Works Great with Visual Studio 2010 RTM!

Also, I agree that a black theme like Expression would be great.

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  • Where is the option to change the theme in vs2010 ?
    1 Posts | Last Post May 08, 2013
    • I've installed the manager package.but i'm not getting the option to change the theme of vs2010.
      please, let me know the steps for changing the theme .
      Thanks !
  • Can we get this to work with SSMS 2012
    2 Posts | Last Post April 12, 2013
    • Can we get this to work with SSMS 2012?
      
      http://blog.bagearon.com/2012/03/sql-server-management-studio-2012-color-themes-extension-support/comment-page-1/#comment-2528
    • Hi! try running ssms 2012 as administrator.
  • Name vs. Color? Which key/name color chances what?!
    2 Posts | Last Post March 20, 2013
    • Hello,
      this question was asked befor, but noone gave an answer. if you select "show all" at the theme editor, you get more than 100 name/color... but which one is controlling what? is there a list for what each key stands for? can perhaps someone provide me with screenshots and the keynames there?
      
      thanks, mike.
    • That's a very good idea. Right now the only method to properly customize the theme is through trial and error, which is very frustrating. It would be a good idea if it were a screenshot available containing the description for each element, or even better, when you hover an element in the list it could be surrounded by a visible frame in the UI.
  • Settings for Output Window Text and Background
    1 Posts | Last Post March 14, 2013
    • Hi Matthew,
      
      Firstly, thanks for the tool. Now using your tool I applied a Elite dark them from http://www.sharepoint.bg/radi/post/Pimp-Your-IDE-Visual-Studio-2010-Themes-and-Skins.aspx But now when I change the Output Window plain text foreground to Yellow and background to a shade of Dark Grey (from Tools -> Options -> Environment -> Fonts and Colors)and the background renders fine but the text goes black and is sort of highlighted in light grey background. I wonder if you could tell me what setting in your tool I could use to set the text color and background for Output Window? Thanks.
  • Pick up System colors?
    5 Posts | Last Post December 09, 2012
    • This is a great extension, and I guess this is more a comment for the VS team. But I'm on XP, with a custom Windows Classic theme, and I hate it when apps decide to use their own color scheme. I wish that either VS or this extension had a way of reading my system colors and basing the scheme on that. I know that I can use this extension to go through one by one and adjust all the colors, and I guess I'll do that when I have an hour to spare, but I wish there were a simpler way.
    • There are some built-in themes, like the Windows Classic theme that uses the system colors. Would be nifty if this same concept could be applied to the new UI style though.
    • I'd also like an option to use current Windows theme colours.
    • How do you install this studid thing?
      
      When I run it, it installs in VS 2012 instead of 2012.
    • This extension is for Visual Studio 2010 only.  Downloading and double-clicking the VSIX file should prompt to install for Visual Studio 2010 (not 2012).  If that doesn't work I'd be curious to find out why, but as an alternative you can try opening Visual Studio 2010, going to Tools\Extension Manager, and searching from there for "color theme editor".  You should be able to find and install the extension from that dialog.
      
      If you're looking for the version that supports Visual Studio 2012 it's here: http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/366ad100-0003-4c9a-81a8-337d4e7ace05
  • Please let it work with VS 11
    14 Posts | Last Post August 31, 2012
    • I've really enjoyed using this.  With VS 11 this extension becomes critically important to me, since MS has stubbornly forced light gray (new RC screenshots) on us.  PLEASE, PLEASE let this work on VS 11. Being able to add some contrast  (like that burgundy screen-shot you have here) is very important to me.
    • I love this extension.  Please make this work with Visual Studio 2012.  There are a lot of us there that would really appreciate it.  
    • +1 I can't go without this extension any more. It really does help people who are sensitive to high contrast. Thanks.
    • +1 I need to throw my hat in with this. Whilst I am a black background coder the dead 2012 UI is like a prison. 
    • +1 Agree on this. Please make it works on vs 2012.
    • +1 again.  VS2012 RTM still looks horribly grey.
    • +100 - please please please make it work with VS2012 - uggghhhh that all that flat grey!
    • Quoting Scott Hanselman in http://www.hanselman.com/blog/VisualStudio2012RCIsReleasedTheBigWebRollup.aspx
      
      "Matt Johnson, one of the developers on the Visual Studio team, developed and released a theme editor extension for Visual Studio 2010 on Studio Gallery. His tool needs additional time and effort to work with Visual Studio 2012 given all the changes we made. As soon as it’s ready we will make it available. With Matt's tool you will be able make a wide variety of theme changes including updating the Status Bar colors to colors of your choosing."
      
      That'd be great news
    • Scott's got the right information, a VS 2012 version of this extension is nearly ready for release.  Thanks for your patience!
    • Please do this for VS 2012.
      Can't work with the 2 tone look. 
      I don't know that the guys at Microsoft are thinking. No wonder Apple is beating them. If Windows 8 release is like this then Microsoft shares will be penny stock!
    • "Matthew Johnson [MSFT]
      Scott's got the right information, a VS 2012 version of this extension is nearly ready for release.  Thanks for your patience!"
      
      Thanks Matthew!  Do you have any plans to allow us to change the icons themselves or allow us to revert back to the VS 2010 icons.  The VS 2012 icons make the IDE more difficult to use.  
    • +1! Please add VS2012 support!
    • +1. I hoped through Beta & RC I'd get used to it, or MS'd improve it, but even in RTM VS2012 is bland, gloomy and has awful contrast, making it really difficult to differentiate any of the UI components. It's like working in a dank cave. Very much looking forward to the new build of this extension!
    • Does anyone have trouble using this while working on Windows Workflow Foundation? The flow charts do get rendered well. I have to switch back to default in order to work with WF, 
  • Another Suggestion - Easy Pasting of Colour Codes
    3 Posts | Last Post August 10, 2012
    • Could it also be made to easily Copy / Paste the Values from the "Color" drop-downs please?
      
      Currently I have to open each one and copy the code, then open each one and select / paste it into the specific color code box in the drop-down. When modifying multiple colours (such as all 7 of the Environment Colour sections) it would be much better to simply click on each combo text in turn (without actually opening the combo drop down) and pressing ctrl + V.
    • If you select a row and press Ctrl+C, it should copy that row's color. If you select another row, you should be able to use Ctrl+V to paste the color.  You can also select multiple rows for copy/paste, similar to pasting over a range of cells in Excel.  Please let me know if that doesn't work for you...
    • Ah that does work! I must have been trying to (stupidly) paste it OVER the combo before. Yep that functionality works great then. Thanks for this addon btw, I applaud anything that offers customisability, and VS2010 is now a lot easier on my eyes with lesser white / dark constrast (with the blues changed to something akin to VS2008). As I mentioned the only problem I have is knowing what sections of the Theme choser apply to what parts of the UI by name (highlight them, or point / click maybe?) Otherwise, great work!
  • Breakpoint Column Colour
    3 Posts | Last Post August 10, 2012
    • Anyone know the name of the Breakpoint column? I just want to darken it a tad but can't for the life of me find it.
      
      Btw for the future, the ability to click on a section of the IDE and have it filter to the relevant colours for that section (or close surrounding ones) would be fantastic btw! Love the search but its still pretty hard if you don't know what they're called.
    • The breakpoints margin is part of the text editor, and is customizable through Tools\Options\Environment\Fonts and Colors.  The name of the color is "Indicator Margin", and you can customize its background color there (as well as the rest of the text editor's colors.
    • Thanks Matthew, didn't realise that one was customisable through the standard UI!
      Solved.
  • Hidden/Overflow File Tab Text Color
    1 Posts | Last Post June 18, 2012
    • I don't know the official name of these but I will try to explain them as best as I can. Can I change the text color of the open file tabs that are not shown due to too many file tabs open already. For example, I have 10 files open but can only see 5 of the tabs. There is a down arrow to the right of the file tabs and when I click that I see the rest of the open files. How do I change the file text for those extra files?
  • Colour Key
    1 Posts | Last Post June 13, 2012
    • Nice...thanks!
      
      is there a "map" to denote where each of the bazillion colours listed apply in the ide itself?
      
      i'm trying to change the font colour on the inactive doc tabs.
      
      thanks in advance.
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