The Shifting Colors
Google Chrome has increasingly embraced customization, moving beyond the sterile grey interfaces of the past. A recent feature introduced allows Chrome to automatically change its entire theme—the colors of the tab bar, the omnibox, and the background of new tabs—based on the colors of your current Windows or macOS system wallpaper. If your desktop background cycles through different images, your browser will constantly and automatically shift its color palette to match. For users who prefer a consistent, predictable work environment, suddenly having a bright pink browser window because a flower wallpaper appeared is highly distracting.
Locking in a Static Theme
To maintain visual consistency and stop Google Chrome from automatically changing its theme colors to match your operating system’s wallpaper, you must decouple the browser from the OS color extraction feature.
Open Google Chrome and open a new, blank tab (press Ctrl+T or Cmd+T). Look in the very bottom right corner of the New Tab page for a small button labelled Customize Chrome (it may also appear as a pencil icon). Click this button to open the side panel. In this panel, look for the section titled “Appearance” or “Color and theme.” You will likely see that the option for “Follow device colors” or “Extract from wallpaper” is currently selected. To stop the automatic changes, simply click on one of the static, solid color circles provided (like dark grey, blue, or classic white), or select “Default color.” Chrome will immediately apply that permanent, unchanging color scheme to the entire browser interface.