feat: add Menu.setHighlightColors() for Windows by ashleyhendrata · Pull Request #55074 · electron/electron

ashleyhendrata · 2026-10-16T21:18:09Z

Description of Change

Adds Menu.setHighlightColors(options) so apps can set the background and text color of the hovered or keyboard-focused item in menus on Windows. By default that highlight is about #f2f2f2 on white (roughly 1.12:1), below the 3:1 that WCAG 1.4.11 asks for, and apps had no way to change it.

The colors are applied by a color mixer registered after Chromium's in ElectronBrowserMainParts::PreEarlyInitialization(), which overrides kColorMenuItemBackgroundSelected and kColorMenuItemForegroundSelected. The mixer does nothing in high contrast or forced colors mode so the user's system colors win. Calling the method clears the color provider cache so menus opened afterwards pick up the change, and null restores the defaults.

The mixer is only registered on Windows, so the method has no effect on macOS (which uses NSMenu) or on Linux, where the GTK and Qt themes provide their own menu colors (ui/gtk/gtk_color_mixers.cc, ui/qt/qt_ui.cc).

const { Menu } = require('electron')

Menu.setHighlightColors({
  light: { background: '#0067c0', foreground: '#ffffff' }, // 5.7:1
  dark: { background: '#4cc2ff', foreground: '#000000' } // 10.5:1
})

Menu.setHighlightColors(null) // restore the defaults

Light and dark colors are set independently: any color left unset keeps Chromium's default for that mode, and each call replaces the colors from previous calls.

Tested on Windows 11 ARM64 with the CI build from this PR:

	Highlight	Contrast vs. menu background
Default	`#f2f2f2` on `#ffffff`	1.12:1
`Menu.setHighlightColors({ light: { background: '#0067c0', foreground: '#ffffff' } })`	`#0067c0` on `#ffffff`	5.7:1

Checked context menus and menu bar dropdowns, light and dark mode, that a mode left unset keeps the default highlight (light colors only, viewed in dark mode), keyboard navigation with the arrow keys, resetting with null, and that a Windows contrast theme (Night sky) overrides the app's colors.

Before (default)	After (`#0067c0` / `#ffffff`)

Checklist

I have built and tested this change
I have filled out the PR description
I have reviewed and verified the changes
npm test passes
tests are changed or added
relevant API documentation, tutorials, and examples are updated and follow the documentation style guide
PR release notes describe the change in a way relevant to app developers, and are capitalized, punctuated, past tense, and no longer than 80 characters.

Release Notes

Notes: Added Menu.setHighlightColors() to set menu highlight colors on Windows.

Lets apps set the background and text color of the hovered or keyboard-focused item in Views menus on Windows. The colors are skipped in high contrast and forced colors modes. Closes electron#54953 Co-Authored-By: Claude <svc-devxp-claude@slack-corp.com>

Co-Authored-By: Claude <svc-devxp-claude@slack-corp.com>

itsananderson · 2026-10-28T21:59:33Z

+```
+-->
+
+- `options` Object | null


Having the dark mode options be an optional override feels strange, since we're then making the simplest usage result in no differentiation between light/dark mode (which is likely not what people want most of the time).

I wonder if a more symmetrical API would be better:

- `light` (optional) - `background` string (optional) - `foreground` string (optional) - `dark` (optional) - `background` string (optional) - `foreground` string (optional)

Or alternatively:

- `lightBackground` string (optional) - `lightForeground` string (optional) - `darkBackground` string (optional) - `darkForeground` string (optional)

If someone specifically wants to use the same colors for light/dark mode, then it would force them to be more verbose, but otherwise these API shapes would make calls to setHighlightColors much more explanatory without someone having to look up the docs to understand the override/fallback behaviors.

That makes sense, thanks for pointing that out! I've switched to the nested version, and each mode only uses its own colors (no fallback).

itsananderson · 2026-10-28T22:05:44Z

+      if (gin::ConvertFromV8(isolate, value, &str))
+        *out = ParseCSSColor(str);
+      if (!*out) {
+        thrower.ThrowTypeError(base::StrCat({"Invalid color for '", key, "'"}));


this comment might become outdated if you take my other suggestion to change the API shape, but I think this will produce an error like Invalid color for 'background' which won't be enough for someone to know if it was the light or dark "background" key.

Error now includes the mode, thank you!

Light and dark colors are now set independently, with no fallback between modes, and validation errors name the mode (for example 'dark.background'). Co-Authored-By: Claude <svc-devxp-claude@slack-corp.com>

itsananderson

API LGTM

georgexu99 · 2026-10-29T23:04:11Z

@claude get us a review please

jkleinsc

API LGTM

welcome · 2026-10-29T23:27:06Z

Congrats on merging your first pull request! 🎉🎉🎉

release-clerk · 2026-10-29T23:27:07Z

Release Notes Persisted

Added Menu.setHighlightColors() to set menu highlight colors on Windows.

trop · 2026-10-29T23:27:20Z

I was unable to backport this PR to "44-x-y" cleanly;
you will need to perform this backport manually.

trop · 2026-10-29T23:27:49Z

I have automatically backported this PR to "45-x-y", please check out #55493

trop · 2026-10-29T23:27:52Z

I have automatically backported this PR to "46-x-y", please check out #55494

trop · 2026-10-30T00:23:58Z

@ashleyhendrata has manually backported this PR to "44-x-y", please check out #55500

feat: add Menu.setHighlightColors() for Windows (#55074) * feat: add Menu.setHighlightColors() for Windows Lets apps set the background and text color of the hovered or keyboard-focused item in Views menus on Windows. The colors are skipped in high contrast and forced colors modes. Closes #54953 * docs: add API history for Menu.setHighlightColors * style: apply clang-format to menu_highlight_colors.cc * refactor: use symmetric light/dark options for Menu.setHighlightColors Light and dark colors are now set independently, with no fallback between modes, and validation errors name the mode (for example 'dark.background'). --------- (cherry picked from commit 77a943b) Co-authored-by: Claude <svc-devxp-claude@slack-corp.com>

ashleyhendrata marked this pull request as ready for review October 22, 2026 21:37

ashleyhendrata marked this pull request as draft October 22, 2026 21:37

georgexu99 added target/44-x-y PR should also be added to the "44-x-y" branch. target/45-x-y PR should also be added to the "45-x-y" branch. labels Oct 26, 2026

github-actions Bot added the target/46-x-y PR should also be added to the "46-x-y" branch. label Oct 26, 2026

erickzhao added the semver/minor backwards-compatible functionality label Oct 27, 2026

ashleyhendrata and others added 3 commits October 27, 2026 14:24

docs: add API history for Menu.setHighlightColors

49078a5

Co-Authored-By: Claude <svc-devxp-claude@slack-corp.com>

style: apply clang-format to menu_highlight_colors.cc

68a4ef3

Co-Authored-By: Claude <svc-devxp-claude@slack-corp.com>

ashleyhendrata force-pushed the menu-highlight-colors branch from d767145 to 68a4ef3 Compare October 27, 2026 21:24

georgexu99 requested review from erickzhao, georgexu99 and itsananderson October 27, 2026 22:19

ashleyhendrata marked this pull request as ready for review October 27, 2026 23:52

electron-cation Bot added the api-review/requested 🗳 label Oct 27, 2026

georgexu99 approved these changes Oct 28, 2026

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itsananderson reviewed Oct 28, 2026

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refactor: use symmetric light/dark options for Menu.setHighlightColors

13a6cce

Light and dark colors are now set independently, with no fallback between modes, and validation errors name the mode (for example 'dark.background'). Co-Authored-By: Claude <svc-devxp-claude@slack-corp.com>

ashleyhendrata requested a review from itsananderson October 29, 2026 18:18

itsananderson approved these changes Oct 29, 2026

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claude Bot mentioned this pull request Oct 29, 2026

fix: create API Review check on fork PRs and pass it when review isn't needed electron/cation#247

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jkleinsc approved these changes Oct 29, 2026

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jkleinsc added api-review/approved ✅ and removed api-review/requested 🗳 labels Oct 29, 2026

electron-cation Bot added api-review/requested 🗳 and removed api-review/approved ✅ labels Oct 29, 2026

jkleinsc merged commit 77a943b into electron:main Oct 29, 2026
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github-actions Bot added the 47-x-y label Oct 29, 2026

trop Bot added needs-manual-bp/44-x-y and removed target/44-x-y PR should also be added to the "44-x-y" branch. labels Oct 29, 2026

This was referenced Oct 29, 2026

feat: add Menu.setHighlightColors() for Windows #55493

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feat: add Menu.setHighlightColors() for Windows #55494

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trop Bot added the in-flight/45-x-y label Oct 29, 2026

trop Bot added in-flight/46-x-y and removed target/45-x-y PR should also be added to the "45-x-y" branch. target/46-x-y PR should also be added to the "46-x-y" branch. labels Oct 29, 2026

ashleyhendrata mentioned this pull request Oct 30, 2026

feat: add Menu.setHighlightColors() for Windows #55500

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trop Bot added in-flight/44-x-y merged/46-x-y PR was merged to the "46-x-y" branch. merged/45-x-y PR was merged to the "45-x-y" branch. and removed needs-manual-bp/44-x-y in-flight/46-x-y in-flight/45-x-y labels Oct 30, 2026

trop Bot added merged/44-x-y PR was merged to the "44-x-y" branch. and removed in-flight/44-x-y labels Nov 3, 2026

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ashleyhendrata commented Oct 16, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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ashleyhendrata commented Oct 16, 2026 •

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