Google Chrome changed Title Bar Color – Does not inherit correct color from Windows Classic Theme

Having spent a bit of time googling this issue, the best I can tell is that google for some reason decided to change the background color in its latest update.

I’ve only been able to return it to a blue by installing what is either a ‘theme’ or an ‘extension’ (not sure which), as recommended on this google products forum page:

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/chrome/JlFMkwbxWes

I’m not finding it to be exactly as before, but it does at least return a good color contrast between tabs and border.

After a few try outs, Internet search and referring to Google Product Forums, I managed to figure out the reason and a solution, but it’s kind of outdated by now!

Google Chrome has several additional experimental settings (flags) that can be accessed by entering URL chrome://flags/ in Chrome’s address bar.

One of the settings is called 'Material Design'. (chrome://flags/#top-chrome-md) Set this to ‘Non-Material’ and the title bar color is restored to default Blue and this looks better with the Windows Classic theme on Windows 7. Material Design flag also makes some subtle changes in the look & feel of Chrome. Unfortunately from version 55 and going forward Material Design shall be the only standard option in Chrome (Unless Google Decides to bring it back)

What I have now done is installed offline v54 (obtained from a third party site) & set Non-Material design and disabled Auto-Update in Chrome.

Refer https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18483087/how-to-disable-google-chrome-auto-update for how to disable auto update in Chrome.

Hope this helps any users that are still interested to see the classic look of Google Chrome & default Blue title bar.

Now I understand that since auto update was enabled by default, one particular update automatically set that flag as ‘Material Design’ (where the issue started) and eventually now in v55 that option itself has been removed permanently.

References –

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18483087/how-to-disable-google-chrome-auto-update

http://www.howtogeek.com/266280/how-to-turn-chromes-new-material-design-on-and-off/

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!forum/chrome