Can I enable the Windows classic theme in Windows 10?

No, but Windows 10 includes numerous customization options. Your specific request might be available in third party solutions.

Basics: Using Settings to customize Windows

This is a deal breaker for Windows 10 then.  I do not want a Mac UI.  If I did I would buy  Mac.  You CANNOT set personalization even close to the degree you could in previous versions of Windows.  The whole UI is clunky, bulky, and the available colors settings are absolutely 100% ugly.  Why in the world would MS set the task bar black and then have the task bar text black also?  REALLY...   There is no way that I can find to simply change the color of the task bar text so it is readable.  The task bar is HUGE, way way too tall as it the top bar (whatever MS calls it now) in each app where the min/max, restore, close buttons are.  Then that butt ugly huge burnt orange close button is horrid.  I have no idea in hell who chose the color schemes for Windows 10 but that have to be color blind to have chosen such a terrible clashing color set.


Formatting my HD and reinstalling Windows 7 is under way soon.  At free, windows 10 is over priced.

There is no way to pin an app to the left side of the start menu.  I HATE those horrible bulky stupid tiles.  I am using a desk top computer like most of the people who work in the real world.  Tiles are useless, and bulky.  I want a simple lint of apps that I want pinned to my start menu like I have been able to do.  MS has again failed with WIN10.  You keep taking away basic functionality and adding glitz and fluff.  Windows 10 might as well be called Windows 8.2.

Agreed 100% deal breaking UI. I upgraded the only 2 machines with a windows install on them and immediately reverted to 7 where I can control my UI colors and size. Windows has become just like Mac OS forcing a single UI on everyone with ease of access themes that are brutally ugly and insulting to those who must use them. I have two pieces of software that keep me using this horrid Microsoft tripe but as I'm forced into using this garbage when the Win 7 support ends unless they fix this in 11+ I will ditch my software and migrate 100% to Linux.

It's unbelievable that in this day and age of features being selling points 2 of the 3 major OS vendors have been stupid enough to explicitly restrict and take away core features. As PCZero said if we wanted to be railroaded into a horrid UI we'd buy Mac's. More so both Mac and Windows now force users into using a dated UI concept which is the old paradigm of white paper with black ink i.e. white background and black font. Nothing could be worse for a users eyes! As a former MSFT OEM it sickens me for years how I had to change things due to the ignorance and perpetuation of this UI metaphor and how one of my running jokes was if I wanted to stare at a bright light all day I'd buy a $10 lamp not a $2000 computer. Computers might be a hell of a lot cheaper now but the point of the joke stands, white backgrounds and black fonts are the stupidest UI choices you could make from a ocular health standpoint and power savings!

If you're seeing the task bar as black and the task bar text as black you're hitting a bug.  Switching to another theme and then switching back should likely fix that up.  That's not by design.

That is and always will be a deal breaker! I'm also on 7 with a partially customized Windows Classic Theme (light green, light blue for window and 2k Snow Trees background). I even installed Classic Shell for that Old Gold Start Menu! I love this customization and it made my computer run TWICE as fast (I'm on 11 year old hardware with upgraded RAM :/). I plan on buying a new computer and dual booting with 8.1 and 10. However, this is ludicrous and I will buy a another copy of 7 to put in VirtualBox, or just copy my current hard drive (this might not work cause I bought OEM and it will deactivate)! Thanks but no thanks MS, give me the Classic Theme!

However, there may be a work around (it may not work partially or entirely): Open your start menu (or screen), search for 'Computer' or 'This PC' and right click on it, select 'Properties'. On the window that shows up, click 'Advanced system settings'. On that window, under 'Performance' click 'Settings'. Now where it says 'Use visual styles on windows and buttons' uncheck and click 'Apply'. I can't test this on either as I don't have a copy to do so. Please try this and tell me if it worked or not!

I agree with these posts on the UI.  Windows 10 reduces the massive flexibility of desktop computers to the simplicity of a tablet.  As someone pointed out, this is more like Windows 8.2.  And Windows 8 was the most horrendous abomination put out by Microsoft.  When will they realize that a desktop computer is not a tablet?

No one knows. Desktops and Laptops (computers in general) are designed to get work done. Not to work as an entertainment thing. They can be used that way, but that's not what they're designed primarily to do! I think everyone if my other thing didn't work, this 'http://www.howtogeek.com/133405/how-to-get-classic-style-themes-back-on-windows-8/'. Then you can customize stuff. Anyone on 8 and 10 who want the classic theme, this is the closest you can get without modifying your system! To Microsoft, please bring back the classic theme!

How many times will Windows say "We heard you loud and clear.  And we brought the start menu back!"

Kind of...

Oh, an Edge is a real peach of a Navigator.    Nice work you guys really out did yourself there.

I just imagine Microsoft has become a disaster of aging senior managers who bark out orders / ideas, hire contractors with no real direction, make 7 figures, fly around the country on "listening tours" and forget everything they heard because they got trashed at the hotel bar on the companies dime.    This is the result.

What are you talking about?  Windows 10 as *few* customization options.... much less than windows 8.1 which was less than windows 7.  There are no 3rd party solutions that Microsoft would recommend, the only ones that exist are live patching of system files... a definite no-no.