Corrupting color palette in cmd environment

[ilinkcs]

Microsoft PowerToys version

0.80.0

Installation method

PowerToys auto-update

Running as admin

Yes

Area(s) with issue?

General

Steps to reproduce

right click the desktop
select 'Open command window here'
open 'Properties'
select 'Color'
The color palette offered is corrupted

right click the task bar and open a command window from there
open properties
select 'Color'
The color palette is standard

PowerToysReport_2024-04-08-11-19-14.zip

PowerToysReport_2024-04-08-11-19-14.zip

✔️ Expected Behavior

that the standard legacy palette be the same as the powertoys palette

❌ Actual Behavior

the different palettes cause some cmd and bat files to become unusable, as once powertoys is activated the problem proliferates random;y to scripts opened from shortcuts

Other Software

No response

[ilinkcs]

sorry, duplicated image for palettes.

[Jay-o-Way]

Hello and thanks for your message.
I only see a difference in color, but not the setting of the font color. Where exactly is the issue? How did you come to the conclusion that PowerToys is responsible? /needinfo

[ilinkcs]

Hi, Thank you for responding. Please view the side by side image below., in this case the ‘standard’ palette is on the right, the corrupted on the left. The White assignment is now Black, on a Navy background the text becomes nigh on invisible. The corrupted color blocks are not always the same, but this one is most common. The reason I’ve nominated Powertoys as the most likely ‘culprit’ is because the color transformations occurred after a previous upgrade to Powertoys. Not foolproof, but strongly circumstantial: I detected it for the first time when I opened a cmd window using Powertoy’s right click ‘Open command window here’ option. Since then the issue has become more pervasive, with some windows always opening in a different palette. Embedding a ‘color 17’ command in a script has no effect, the only surefire solution is to set properties using rgb codes. Neither the color tab nor the default tab have lasting effect, whether on an open window or against a shortcut instantiating a session. It’s possible that this harks back to a recent change by the Windows team. Possibly reach out there? Color differences: Display info Pertinent graphics info extracted from the attached sysinfo dump: Item Name Value PNP Device ID NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER Adapter Type NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER, NVIDIA compatible Adapter Description NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER Adapter RAM 1,048,576 bytes Installed Drivers nv_dispig.inf_amd6 Driver Version 310.15.3623 INF File oem51 .inf (Section056 section) Color Planes Not Available Color Table Entries 4294967296 Resolution 1920 x 1080 x 60 hertz Bits/Pixel 32 Memory Address 0xA3000000-0xA40FFFFF Memory Address 0xg0000000-0xDFFFFFFF Memory Address 0xA0000000-0xA1 FFFFFF I/O Port 0x00003000-0x00003FFF IRQ Channel IRQ 16 I/O Port 0x000003a0-0x00000388 I/O Por 0x000003C0-0x000003DF Memory Address 0xA0000-0x8FFFF Driver NVLDDMKM.SYS (31.0.15.3623, 56.27 MB (59,007,984 bytes), 20/08/2023 12:20) I hope all this helps. Thank you, Cyril.

[Jay-o-Way]

Sorry, attachments are not passed on, via e-mail. You'd have to open the issue online and edit the comment to upload images.

Also. What version of Windows and CMD are you using? I seem to have very different version myself.
I also notice one image shows "cmd.exe" in the title bar, and the other "Command Prompt". Are these then identical or not? I mean, is it possible two different (version of) apps use a different palette?

[ilinkcs]

hi Jay, here are the attachments

20240409_sysinfo.txt

The full details of the system is in the sysinfo file, and for ease of use:
Windows
OS Name Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
Version 10.0.19045 Build 19045

Windows Command Processor
File version: 100.19041.3636
Product version: 10.0.19041.3636
Size: 283 KB
Date modified: 6/11/2023 20:11

tx, Cyril

[Jay-o-Way]

It's difficult to be 100% certain for me, but I think different profiles are in play here. This is what my settings look like on Windows 11. Note that each of the profiles on the left can have a different color scheme.

And with a few examples on screen:

[ilinkcs]

Jay, hi. Yes, I see that. Interesting. Happy with the reality of multiple palettes, and possible that Powertoys (or even PowerShell) has introduced some that are in contention with the dark ages legacy that is cmd. But I can’t intuit the mechanism to enable or disable them – I did a hunt for how to point the cmd environment to a single cohesive set, but haven’t had much success there – just a lot of very detailed discussions of the peculiar hell that graphics designers live through when navigating the handshakes between devices, drivers and apps. Hardware & software is logically equivalent and this seems to lead to compromises which create more uncertainty than solutions. Maybe there’s a registry setting that can settle the case for the cmd processor? Possibly shared with PowerShell that results in one or the other palette becoming dominant? This isn’t a problem for most users - PowerShell is the answer – but there are apps from the late 90’s / early noughties that run on very old boxes in remote-ish places which still run on XP (& earlier!) and which have never been converted because of – you know – money, ‘Shrinking State & Federal Budgets’ for example. cmd does a lot of heavy lifting there. I can live with the problem because it’s a dev/test issue for me – the rolled solution is rarely impacted. But it would be nice to understand the problem and have a fix or better workaround. Thanks, ~c