Website background color and link color changed

Question

Website background color and link color changed

Richard Cotterman 20

I see all websites now as having a black background and purple links on Microsoft Edge on Windows 11

John Jefferson Doyon 88,820 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-09-30T20:27:44.28+00:00
Hi, @Richard Cotterman

To help narrow this down first:

Does the black background and purple link color happen on every website, or only certain websites?

Does the same thing happen in an Edge InPrivate window?

Does it also happen in another browser such as Chrome or Firefox?

Also, please share a screenshot showing how one of the affected websites looks in Edge. Please hide any personal information before posting it.

Thanks!

Answer accepted by question author

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Your answer

John Jefferson Doyon 88,820 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-09-30T20:27:44.28+00:00

Hi, @Richard Cotterman

To help narrow this down first:

Does the black background and purple link color happen on every website, or only certain websites?

Does the same thing happen in an Edge InPrivate window?

Does it also happen in another browser such as Chrome or Firefox?

Also, please share a screenshot showing how one of the affected websites looks in Edge. Please hide any personal information before posting it.

Thanks!

Answer 1

This usually points to a contrast or forced-colors setting rather than a normal website issue.

Try these checks in order:

Check Windows contrast themes
- Open Start > Settings > Accessibility > Contrast themes.
- If a contrast theme is enabled, change Contrast themes to None and select Apply.
- Expected result: screen colors return to the normal Windows default.
Use the keyboard shortcut to toggle contrast mode
- Press Left Alt + Left Shift + Print Screen.
- This quickly turns high contrast mode on or off.
- If the black background and purple link colors disappear, the issue was caused by contrast mode.
Check Edge appearance
- In Microsoft Edge, open Settings and more > Settings > Appearance.
- Under Overall appearance, select Dark only if a dark browser theme is preferred. If the problem is only on web pages, this alone may not fix forced page colors.
Use Immersive Reader on supported pages
- If only some pages are hard to read, open the page in Edge.
- Select Immersive Reader on the address bar or press F9.
- In Text preferences, under Page themes, select the preferred theme.
- Note: Immersive Reader is only available on supported pages.
Check whether an extension changed website colors
- In Edge, select the Extensions icon > Manage Extensions.
- Disable extensions one at a time, especially any that change page appearance, themes, readability, or colors.
- Expected result: if one extension caused the problem, website colors return to normal after it is disabled.

If the issue started after an Edge update and Windows is using a high contrast theme, there is also a reported case where the Forced Colors flag can be made visible again by opening edge://flags, enabling the option to temporarily unexpire Edge 137 flags, and then checking for the color flag again.

References: