Change File Explorer menu font

**omo** · July 2nd, 2017 03:19 PM

Hi,
I changed all the fonts in .msstyles, but Explorer's menu font is not affected. I added MENUFONT:font in Toolbars , headers and rebar > toolbars and headers > toolbar > default
Is it not controlled by .msstyles?

And I can't change Explorer's menu bar color either. I tried to do it in Explorer & Shell > Explorer > Menu Bar > Background

Appreciate any help.

**omo** · July 5th, 2017 01:54 PM

Is this forum dead? Or did I ask improperly?

**Mr GRiM** · July 5th, 2017 02:43 PM

Can you show a screenshot with an example of the font you want to change, most of the explorer fonts are controlled in Fonts & System Metrics, Fonts, Colors, & System Metrics > Fonts & System Metrics

**omo** · July 6th, 2017 12:29 PM

I decided to apply my theme to a freshly installed 8.1. About the only place where the font was changed is the Control Panel and Task Manager. In all other places the font is unchanged (File Explorer, Start Menu, MS Office menus, etc). Again, the theme has every font changed from Segoe to Tahoma (anti-aliased), that's about 3 dozen locations in WSB.

But when I apply the theme from within WSB, all text in Explorer changes to Tahoma, except for the menu (Ribbon). In fact text in most places all over Windows changes to Tahoma, with the glaring exception of Explorer menu, the start menu (Classic Shell) and MS Office menus, which retain Segoe ClearType.

**Shemhamforash** · July 6th, 2017 01:39 PM

Originally Posted by omo

I decided to apply my theme to a freshly installed 8.1. About the only place where the font was changed is the Control Panel and Task Manager. In all other places the font is unchanged (File Explorer, Start Menu, MS Office menus, etc). Again, the theme has every font changed from Segoe to Tahoma (anti-aliased), that's about 3 dozen locations in WSB.

But when I apply the theme from within WSB, all text in Explorer changes to Tahoma, except for the menu (Ribbon). In fact text in most places all over Windows changes to Tahoma, with the glaring exception of Explorer menu, the start menu (Classic Shell) and MS Office menus, which retain Segoe ClearType.

Your theme will display your desired font choice in testing mode because in Windows 8+ system metrics need to be applied from a seperate file for the fonts and window metrics to display as intended. One way around this is to enter testing mode, apply a theme from control panel, and exit testing mode and wsb.

To obtain your system metrics do the following:

Originally Posted by Mr GRiM

First test the theme in WSB, when you are testing themes system metrics are applied, open the registry editor while testing and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics and export the system metrics.

A couple things to mention, classic shell doesn't theme with msstyles, it's encouraged to use StartisBack+ for msstyles support. I don't believe Office supports any custom themes either. Lastly, if you want help with the explorer menu, post a screenshot, it is not clear what you're talking about.

**omo** · July 6th, 2017 03:22 PM

Originally Posted by Shemhamforash

Your theme will display your desired font choice in testing mode because in Windows 8+ system metrics need to be applied from a seperate file for the fonts and window metrics to display as intended. One way around this is to enter testing mode, apply a theme from control panel, and exit testing mode and wsb.

Sorry, I am not sure I quite understand. Are saying that applying a theme in 8+ will only change some fonts (Control Panel fonts) and that you have to save a .reg file during testing and later apply it to really change fonts and other metrics? But I never did it, yet I still end up with all font changed (except Ribbon).

And what if I later have to switch to Aero (for example) for a second, to be able to save my current theme, will I have to run the Metrics.reg file again? Because on the one hand, once the fonts changed they don’t revert back to Windows default (sometimes they do, but sign out cures that). On the other hand, though, there is an issue with BorderWidth, which keeps changing back to -15, even though it’s 0 in WSB and even if I change it directly in Registry it still reverts to -15 each time I switch to Aero to save my theme (at the same time PaddedBorderWidth stays at zero just fine).