[comp.windows.ms] Blue and Gray base colors are swapped!

todd@ivucsb.sba.ca.us (Todd Day) (12/15/90)

On one of our machines at work, it appears that someone has
somehow swapped the blue and gray base colors of Windows.  I
have played around with just about everything I can think of
in the Control Panel, but cannot switch it back.  For example,
in the Control Panel, you can't change the colors of the buttons
from gray to anything else.  However, somehow, they've ended up
blue.  When I copy the .ini files from a machine that had the
exact same setup, the swap is still there.  Apparently, this has
been done on some lower level than the Control Panel.

Any suggestions?

-- 
Todd Day |   todd@ivucsb.sba.ca.us   |  ucsbcsl!ivucsb!todd

** Ask me about the August, 1991, Gold Rush mini-rallye! **

ergo@netcom.UUCP (Isaac Rabinovitch) (12/15/90)

In <1990Dec15.003219.2532@ivucsb.sba.ca.us> todd@ivucsb.sba.ca.us (Todd Day) writes:

>On one of our machines at work, it appears that someone has
>somehow swapped the blue and gray base colors of Windows.  I
>have played around with just about everything I can think of
>in the Control Panel, but cannot switch it back.  For example....

>Any suggestions?

Boy, is this familiar!  The Control Panel is pretty hopeless, at least
when it comes to editing the color scheme.  What you should do is go
fiddle with the initialization files by hand.  One way is to edit the
[Colors] section of win.ini.  Copy the data from another machine, or
from your backups on this machine.  Or you can have mine:

-----cut here-----
[colors]
Background=160 160 164
AppWorkspace=192 192 192
Window=0 128 128
WindowText=255 255 0
Menu=0 255 255
MenuText=0 0 0
ActiveTitle=255 255 0
InactiveTitle=130 130 130
TitleText=0 0 255
ActiveBorder=255 255 0
InactiveBorder=138 138 176
WindowFrame=128 128 128
Scrollbar=129 129 129
GrayText=100 100 100 
HiLight=120 120 120
-----cut here-----

Note that I've defined a couple of colors that Control Panel doesn't
even know about (I found the menus too hard to read).

If you really want to make the Control Panel Colors thing workable
again, you'll have to fix *its* initialization file.  As above, copy
somebody else (or your own backup) control.ini file.  Here's mine:
----cut here----
[current]
color schemes=Isaac's Scheme

[color schemes]
Arizona=804000,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,0,FFFFFF,0,808040,C0C0C0,FFFFFF,4080FF,C0C0C0,0,818181
Bordeaux=400080,C0C0C0,FFFFFF,0,FFFFFF,0,800080,C0C0C0,FFFFFF,FF0080,C0C0C0,0,818181
Designer=7C7C3F,C0C0C0,FFFFFF,0,FFFFFF,0,808000,C0C0C0,FFFFFF,400040,C0C0C0,0,C0C0C0
Fluorescent=0,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,0,FF00,0,FF00FF,C0C0C0,0,FF80,C0C0C0,0,C0C0C0
Monochrome=C0C0C0,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,0,FFFFFF,0,0,C0C0C0,FFFFFF,808080,C0C0C0,0,818181
Ocean=808000,408000,FFFFFF,0,FFFFFF,0,804000,C1C1C1,FFFFFF,808080,FFFFFF,0,818181
Patchwork=9544BB,C1FBFA,FFFFFF,0,FFFFFF,0,FFFF80,FFFFFF,0,64B14E,FFFFFF,0,818181
Rugby=C0C0C0,80FFFF,FFFFFF,0,FFFFFF,0,800000,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,80,FFFFFF,0,818181
Pastel=C0FF82,80FFFF,FFFFFF,0,FFFFFF,0,FFFF80,FFFFFF,0,C080FF,FFFFFF,808080,818181
Wing tips=408080,C0C0C0,FFFFFF,0,FFFFFF,0,808080,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,4080,FFFFFF,0,818181
Isaac's Scheme=A4A0A0,C0C0C0,808000,FFFF,FFFF00,0,FFFF,828282,FF0000,FFFF,B08A8A,808080,818181
Dago=408080,C0C0C0,808000,FFFF,FFFF00,0,FFFF,828282,FF0000,FFFFFF,B08A8A,808080,818181
Blue Duck=A4A0A0,808000,F0CAA6,800000,FFFF00,0,FFFF,828282,FF0000,FFFF,B08A8A,808080,818181

[Custom Colors]
ColorA=F058A6
ColorB=F058A6
ColorC=D4D4D4
ColorD=FFFFFF
ColorE=72550E
ColorF=FFFFFF
ColorG=FFFFFF
ColorH=FFFFFF
ColorI=F058A6
ColorJ=A4A0A0
ColorK=A4A0A0
ColorL=72720E
ColorM=E09149
ColorN=FFFFFF
ColorO=FFFFFF
ColorP=FFFFFF

[Patterns]
(None)=(None)
Boxes=127 65 65 65 65 65 127 0
Paisley=2 7 7 2 32 80 80 32
Weave=136 84 34 69 136 21 34 81
Waffle=0 0 0 0 128 128 128 240
Tulip=0 0 84 124 124 56 146 124
Spinner=20 12 200 121 158 19 48 40
Scottie=64 192 200 120 120 72 0 0
Critters=0 80 114 32 0 5 39 2
50% Gray=170 85 170 85 170 85 170 85
Quilt=130 68 40 17 40 68 130 1
Diamonds=32 80 136 80 32 0 0 0
Thatches=248 116 34 71 143 23 34 113
Minima=1 192 128 29 28 16 4 0
---cut here---


-- 

	ergo@netcom.uucp			Isaac Rabinovitch
	netcom!ergo@apple.com			Silicon Valley, CA
	{apple,amdahl,claris}!netcom!ergo

		THIS STATEMENT IS VERIFIABLY, IRREFUTABLY TRUE!

risto@tuura.UUCP (Risto Lankinen) (12/17/90)

todd@ivucsb.sba.ca.us (Todd Day) writes:

>On one of our machines at work, it appears that someone has
>somehow swapped the blue and gray base colors of Windows.  I
>have played around with just about everything I can think of
>in the Control Panel, but cannot switch it back.  For example,
>in the Control Panel, you can't change the colors of the buttons
>from gray to anything else.  However, somehow, they've ended up
>been done on some lower level than the Control Panel.

Hi!

Some mischievous fellow may have modified the 'non-standard' system colors
in your WIN.INI ...

There are six color descriptions in the WIN.INI, that can't be modified with
the Control Panel.  They are documented in one of the README files that came
with the Windows, though.  I've listed them below with their default values:

[colors]
 . . .
Hilight=0 0 0
HilightText=255 255 255
ButtonText=0 0 0
ButtonShadow=128 128 128
ButtonFace=192 192 192
GrayText=192 192 192

So, check whether your WIN.INI contains above, but with different figures.
If it does, delete them, or change to as shown.  You can also change the
values to whatever suits your taste; an easy way to do it is experimenting
with some other system color in Control Panel, and finally copying the RGB
values from that line to any of six above.

On the other hand, your problem may indeed be hardware-specific, in which
case I would suspect you've got a minorly incompatible VGA<->displaydriver
combination in your system.  Normally, the Windows modifies (if it finds
that many) 20 of the system's palette entries to its own purposes.  *Could
be*, that only 16 colors are modified in your system, leaving four colors
to their hardware defaults, one of which happens to be used for buttons.

If your VGA is 'non-standard', you probably should try to find its specific
driver for Windows (if the problem persisted).

BTW, even with 'normal' VGA, the basic colors will be modified upon Windows
start-up:  For example, the VGA hardware default for bright red is usually 
RGB(100%,50%,50%), while Windows changes it to RGB(100%,0%,0%).  The goal is
to have the system colors as widely apart from each other as possible within
the RGB-cube, to enhance the appearance (and probably simplify calculations)
of the dithered colors.

Terveisin: Risto Lankinen
-- 
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