Legacy Console Color Palette Registry Location

This guide explains the exact Windows Registry location where user-specific color palette configurations for legacy console windows (such as Command Prompt and PowerShell) are stored. You will learn the specific registry path, the individual registry keys responsible for the 16-color palette, and how application-specific custom palettes are structured.

The Primary Registry Path

Windows stores user-specific configurations for legacy console windows under the HKEY_CURRENT_USER hive. The global default settings are located at:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Console

Color Palette Registry Values

Within the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Console key, the 16-color palette is defined by sixteen separate DWORD (32-bit) values named ColorTable00 through ColorTable15:

• ColorTable00 through ColorTable07: Standard colors (Black, Dark Blue, Dark Green, Dark Cyan, Dark Red, Dark Magenta, Dark Yellow, and Gray).
• ColorTable08 through ColorTable15: Bright/High-intensity colors (Dark Gray, Blue, Green, Cyan, Red, Magenta, Yellow, and White).

Each ColorTableXX value stores a color as a hexadecimal COLORREF value in the 0x00BBGGRR format, where BB is Blue, GG is Green, and RR is Red.

Active Screen Colors

The registry also defines which of the 16 palette entries are used for the active foreground (text) and background:

• ScreenColors: A DWORD value storing a byte where the high nibble represents the background color index (0–15) and the low nibble represents the text color index (0–15). For example, a value of 0x00000007 sets a black background (0) and light gray text (7).
• PopupColors: A DWORD value that uses the same nibble layout to determine the foreground and background colors for popup dialogs inside the console.

Application-Specific Console Subkeys

If you customize the properties of a specific console application (such as cmd.exe or powershell.exe) rather than the default console window, Windows creates a subkey under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Console.

These subkeys are named after the application’s executable path, using underscores in place of backslashes (for example, HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Console\%SystemRoot%_System32_cmd.exe). Any ColorTableXX values defined inside these subkeys override the global settings located in the parent Console key.