I like to think I know my way around Windows after using it daily since Windows 3.1. Sometimes it still surprises me, though.
Today I was working on a blog post for the ENow blog (stay tuned, you’ll see it shortly). I went to copy a quote from a press release and, suddenly, this is what I saw:
Where’d my color go?
I couldn’t figure out what the hell had happened, but my screen was suddenly gray. It was at the correct resolution, and everything looked the same except it was gray. At first I thought I’d mistakenly turned on high contrast mode (which you do with left Alt+left Shift+PrtSc) but nope.
A little digging led me to the dialog shown in the image above. Apparently Windows has a “color filter” mode that, when invoked, makes it easier to see certain colors. It’s intended for people with color-vision deficiencies. For ease of use, Microsoft tied it to a key combination: the Windows key + Ctrl + C. I must have accidentally bumped the Windows key while copying my quote.
Now you know.
Paul's Down-Home Page 
I had this problem today. I wasn’t aware when copy/pasting some text that I hit CTRL+Windows+C
My color went to Black & White, I reinstalled my windows drivers trying to fix it until coming across your blog. Thanks for the quick hotkey fix. Windows can be retarded sometimes with these updates and hotkeys no one will ever want.
Windows + CTRL + C
Damn , You are my time saver God
thanks a lot
THANKL KLYOU MSCUHJ
YOU ME M
THANK YOU
I love you
THANKS A TON.. IT REALLY WORKED.. YOU SHOULD BE IN NASA MAN.. 😉
Windows + Control + C – works great – really, thanks a lot!! 🙂
Windows + CTRL + C
Thank you.
Thank You So Much Sir…
Awesome ..That resolved my issue in b/w screen.
that’s how you make it grey
Thank you so much, your blog is the super helpful….I had this issue before and I called up my helpdesk and they spent 1 hour to fix it. Today, I had the same problem again and I tried to google the fix and I came cross your blog….super quick to fix than the helpdesk. Thank you thank you thank you and thank you
thanks it resolve
thanks so much for your response
IT WORKS WITH Windows + CTRL + C!!!
You’re so lovely I’d kiss you ❤
Thanks so much …. 😊😊😊😊
this is very workable , i appricite as i was very tense about nmy PC , when took to a technical workshop he cost me for his servicies ,& change the theme & make default colors . now i repair my window with this trick control+window+c
Thank you for your very useful reply. I hit CTRL+Windows+C and everything is back to normal
Same thing happened to me. To disable this key combo shortcut for the future, go to Settings > Ease of Access > Color and High Contrast > under Color Filters, switch the “Apply Color Filter” button to OFF.
That does not disable the key shortcut for the future. It merely turns off the greyscale filter if it’s already on.
Thank you had same thing when I copied text.
thanks bro.
Where is the windows button to hit windows +control+c
Thanks a lot!
Thank you. I was wondering what sequence of keys my pre coffee fingers tapped on!
thanks for information it really worked
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/…
To disable the hotkeys in your computer, please follow the below steps. 1. Go to the desktop. 2. right click anywhere on the desktop screen. 3. Select Graphics options. 4. In there, select the Hotkeys and select Disable.
Thanks it works with ctrl + Windows + c
what should i do if it doesnt
Same thing happened to me today. I had to figure it out on my own, because my Google searches all came back with suggestions about drivers and monitor cables – which doesn’t apply. Glad someone else shouted this out too.
Thanks for this info. Just happened to me, and searches gave me all sorts of ridiculous fixes. That should not be activated by hot keys! I would be for removing all of them.
thanks !
You sir, are my fucking hero!!!! Thank you!
THANK YOU. I was messing around with drivers for two hours before I found this. You’d think the hot keys would at least tell you when you’d triggered something like this.
Thank you, Paul!
Bad key combination to make the screen go grayscale. There should be another combination that is not too close to the very frequently used Ctrl + C.
Same problem – thanl YOU!!!
It did not work for me – any other suggestions
I’m getting the same thing within Windows 10 inside a Parallels VM. It’s not Win/Cmd Key + Ctrl + C though. Sometimes it’s happening with just Ctrl + C, but oddly, not all the time!!!
I am using a MacBook Pro with Parallels, and when I use CMD+Ctrl+C to get rid of my gray screen, it launches Evernote! Any ideas?
I haven’t used Evernote in years, but I bet it has a menu-bar icon for its settings– check there to see what its shortcut key is.
Thank you, I couldn’t first figure out how to get color back. Is there some option to disable the ctrl+win+C hotkey? I accidentally press it when trying to do ctrl+C sometimes.
Thanks for sharing. You solve the problem for a lot people. Thank you.
My goodness this is dumb… not even a notification window, or a balloon pup-up. Thank you, many times over!
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Thanks, this helped me a lot.
thanks this helped me resolve my gray screen
issue.
THANK YOU for this. was trying for 2 hours to fix via the control panel but couldn’t find any settings. Like the previous comments mentioned, can a pop up not appear when triggered to notify you…Something so simple that can cause a headache!!
Thanks once again 🙂
Holy cow. You just saved my sanity.
Thanks a lot man. I was *THIS* close to went full retard. Luckily sanity quickly restored and your entry is the first on the search results.
Why windows why???? You couldn’t map this to a less used key??
Thank you for saving me!
CTRL+Windows+C and CTRL+C and Windows+C … none of these are working! Any other ideas? It’s the same problem, but all the Windows support I get is about printing.
Click on the hour glass at the bottom menu bar, next to the Window key, Type color in the search window box. Select “Turn color filter on or off”, Select “off” in the Apply color filter field.
Close the window box.
Thanks its help for me
OMG thank you.
Thank you very much. I was thinking I had a virus. But thanks to your comment I can continue working and be calm without that kind of concern.
Thanks, that just happened to me. Glade you told me!
Thanks!!! Great help.
What is the window key
THANK YOU SOOOOOO MUCH THIS WAS SOOOO HELPFUL!!!! Now I’ma troll my firends… ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
I didn’t actually notice I’d done this until i dropped back to the desktop from Excel by which time I’d forgotten that I’d tried copying something. Thankfully managed to sort it with minimal fussing (i.e blindly hit every key combination I could think of! 🙂 )
I accidentally hit the key combo and colors were off… I started searching for an answer… Just before I was to head down the ugly path, I clicked on your link…. THANKS! You saved me a lot of time and frustration!
Thanks. Other forums wanted me to re-install video drivers! You saved me a lot of stress.
thanks 🙂
Thank you! This was a very helpful fix. Thanks for posting!
Thank you sir for saving me. This happened twice to me within a week. I didn’t know how did I make the color back last time, I even tried restarted windows. I am glad I googled and found your link! Thanks again!
Thanks for the post. I learned a new short cut 🙂
Thank you! That is the dumbest shortcut ever!
THANK YOU!!!
Thank you.
Thank you so much! My screen had just gone gray too, but now with Windows Control C it is back to normal. Thank you!!!!
Thank you sooo much, saved my life
STRG-WIN-C – what idiot has come off with that key combo? MS bloddy pisses me off. How can i permanently ged rid of this hotkey combo (beside throwing win10 into trash)?
Thx. You saved my day 🙂 Greetings from Holland
Windows+Ctrl+C
I must have also bumped
what a stupid combination choice by Windows
Thanks for this post.
And fuck Microsoft, for knowing NOTHING about usability.
Thank you for this! I had the same problem and no idea on what was going on and how to fix it!
Thank u
Thanks for this life saver. I was about to run out and buy a new monitor…..pheew!
Dude. You saved my day. I was doing something very important and suddenly pressing combination of key greyed out my both laptop screen and external monitor. I restarted multiple times, googled a lot, reset display settings but no luck. I was going to reinstall drivers but suddenly I got your this article and just a CTRL + WIN + C and boom. My colors are back…
My phone is grey its like watching a black and white tv ! How do i fix this ?
Windows key+Ctrl+C worked for me!
Thank you!
thank you i was getting really frustrated as i couldnt understand what my daughter had done to get it like it
Add me to the list of fat-fingered, grey-screened, desperate windows users! Thanks dude!
AGAIN!
It happened again!
And the only way to fix it, was to find this post.
Fuck the incompetent assholes at Microsoft, for adding this “feature”.
Who builds shit like that?
You should be getting a payment, every time this posts does their job for them.
Unbelievable!
Thanks for the answer…..it’s been doing me head in for days!! ha
I hope others find their way to fix the greyed out screen, or my screen has no colour, not sure if I will ever use this feature on purpose, but now I know!!
Thankyou 🙂
you saved me today man with this post. now all I need is for you to help me find out why shift isn’t working!!
Thank you very much Paul. I have had the grey issue for more than 2weeks and did not know what to do until i read your blog. This is very helpful and brilliant
Very useful, although Win+Ctrl+Print Screen did not work on my Win 10 PC. I went to “Settings” then “Ease of Access” and chose “Colour & High Contrast”. Under “Colour Filters” I chose “apply colour filter = off”. It had been set to “on” and the greyscale filter by some finger action on my part yesterday. It took hours to get to the bottom of this including cable changes etc, so thanks. Paul, UK
Wow..you are a life saver 🙂
Thanks alot ..
OMGEEEE My 7 months old has a computer fetish and won’t stop messing with my keyboard. Today she jumped on it and the screen turned gray. I thought I would definitely have to buy another…THANK YOU!!!!
IDK, it’s probably pretty expensive to replace a 7-month-old, isn’t it?
I agree with everyone. Wow! First time I have ever done that but I had to take off my caps lock button when I hit it over and over again with my little pinky. I need those hot keys tho.
Thanks a lot!! my screen too turned grey ,Thanks to your article I fixed within a short time!!
life saver
Thank you so, so much!
Thank you! Such a simple fix and I looked at about 12 websites that never mentioned this!
thenk you
feryy nice
Thanks this helped a lot my lil girl she’s is one and was playing rolblox and my other daughter had came upstairs and said the computer was gray I was looking crazy like how that happened was looking through everything and like you I’m excellent with computers but glad I found you post very helpful
thanks to Sandy, I followed :- go to Settings > Ease of Access > Color and High Contrast > under Color Filters, switch the “Apply Color Filter” button to OFF.
Reply
THANK YOU!
Thank you life saver.
Thanks a lot.. it worked
Your article saved my life. THANK YOU SO MUCH
Super bro..kudoos from vanimel, nadapuram, kerala,
thanks so much for your tip . if you want to know what to do than you just type settings and type color filter . yes this color is the right spelling for it .
Thanks been scratching my head
👍😃
Whew! Thanks. Now if I could just get my cat to stop walking across my keyboard, or TELL me which keys she stepped on…
My cat once turned on my webcam during a work conference call. I was pacing around the room, dressed in boxers and a T-shirt. Thankfully my male coworker was too busy laughing to be offended.
You are the best; thanks for helping me out! And so are cats, robichaux; rofl!
excellent
Thank you so much, this must be suggested in windows troubleshooter.
THANKS!
super helpful article
Any other ways this might happen? Win+Ctrl+C does nothing. The settings in Color Filters has “Turn on Color Filters” off. It even has the “Allow the shortcut key to toggle filter” as unchecked.
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