# How do I change the colour of selected files/items in vista?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-change-the-colour-of-selected-files-items-in-vista/446615>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 23, 2008, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-change-the-colour-of-selected-files-items-in-vista/446615 "2008-04-23T23:25:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2008, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-change-the-colour-of-selected-files-items-in-vista/446615/1 "2008-04-23T23:25:29Z")

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Such as in windows explorer, selected files do not get hilighted, or are hilighted the same colour as everything else. It’s almost impossible to tell by looking at the file what file is selected.

I’ve messed about in the desktop settings cp but the ‘selected items’ colour box has no effect.

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**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2008, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-change-the-colour-of-selected-files-items-in-vista/446615/2 "2008-04-24T02:38:07Z")

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No idea, just poking around on Vista here, try this:

Control Panel, Appearance and Personalization, Ease of Access (it’s over on the left-hand sidebar), Optimize visual display, Choose a high contrast color scheme, then pick Windows Vista Standard. That’s what mine is set on, and I see selected items in Explorer highlighted in pale blue.