Standard Windows Pick color dialog doesn't allow to enter 3-digit color codes

Question

The standard Windows 7 Pick color dialog allows me to enter only 2 digits into text fields for hue, saturation, luminance and red, green and blue even though possible value range for each field is one byte, i.e. 0 - 255.

When I select a specific color from Basic colors or from the color matrix, it fills the text fields with the right values (see the image below) but I cannot enter the 3-digit values manually.

Simply it looks like the input text boxes for red/green/blue and hue/saturation/luminance values have maximum text length set to 2 characters. It's not possible to enter 3-digit numbers by manual typing or for example by pasting from the clipboard. When I paste for example number 255 into all three color text boxes, instead of white color, the selected one is almost black because it cut the last digit during pasting, i.e. pasted 25 instead of 255.

This way it's nearly impossible to select a specific color (unless it's among the Basic colors). I have to try to get as close color to my intended one as possible using the matrix and the slider.

Is it possible to fix it anyhow?

Note: Windows 10 has the dialog fixed and allows me to enter the 3-digit values manually.

Answer 1

There's a (small) possibility it's some sort of virus. There are ways to replace the color picker in Win10, so I'd also assume in Win7 the same thing could happen.
How to change the windows 10 default color picker

On further reading/searching, it look like there's a Win7 way to do it as well.
Is there a way to change the Windows default color picker?

I'm not sure what would be gained by replacing the color picker, except for that it's a compromised piece that's running as a Windows "service", and can do presumably "anything" it wants. I'd suggest doing virus and malware scans to rule out this possibility.

OTOH, it seems as if other people have had this issue since 2010. The poster here ended up reverting Win7, presumably with a backup or restore point, and it fixed their issue. It could be a bad Win Update, but I find it hard to believe that at this point in the Win7 support time frame. It hasn't ended yet (Jan 2020), but a similar update that kills the color picker in the same way that happened in 2010 isn't likely. It's more likely a known bug that MS didn't deem interesting or problematic enough to actually fix.
https://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/96918-problem-entering-rgb-values-color-picker.html

The same user as above posed in Microsoft's own forum and they couldn't give a complete answer, either.

Many of the settings in the Advanced Appearance Settings do not make changes, if you are using themes, especially the Aero themes. However, this should not result in the behavior you are describing?

Open Control Panel/Action Center. Expand the Maintenance section and click View Reliability Monitor. Look for any recent 'X' error icons. Click the error icon to view the details.

You might also want to check the Administrative Tools/Event Viewer. Look in Custom Views/Administrative Events for any recorded errors. If you find any that appear to be associated with this problem, double click the error to see the details.

Another user suggested changing the font, as well, in 2015.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/cannot-enter-3-digit-values-in-windows-7-color/9f60af8f-3ece-45cf-b249-436030822519

With this new knowledge, I'd suggest going ahead and finding a replacement for your color picker, regardless if it's a bug or a virus. You'll likely have fewer headaches, as well as a better color palette to use.

Answer 2

I cannot reproduce this problem and it works quite well in my Windows 7 virtual machine.
Here is proof:

It seems like your copy of the Windows Common Dialogs DLL is corrupted. This DLL is found in C:\Windows\System32\comdlg32.dll. If it is not corrupted, then some other DLLs are corrupted and the situation may be too difficult to fix manually.

As this is Windows 7, the installation is most probably not recent and may have a long history. I cannot recommend re-installation of Windows in such a case, so here are the next best steps:

• Run chkdsk and check the SMART data of the system disk.

• Run anti-virus checks by several well-known products, including Malwarebytes.

• Run in an elevated Command Prompt the following commands and repeat until no more errors are found:

  sfc /scannow
  dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
  dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
  

  If DISM finds any errors, run also:

  dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
  

  For running sfc /scannow, see this tutorial.

• Copy comdlg32.dll from another Windows 7 computer, of same bitness (32 or 64 bit).

• Run Repair Install.

I suggest before starting to take serious backups, including a backup image of the system disk, but using for that a third-party product rather than Windows Backup. Choose a backup product that has recovery boot media, just in case.

Answer 3

I had the same problem. The solution? The Microsoft Sans Serif font was not installed. I installed it and all was ok.

Answer 4

In your Windows 7 Registry Editor, check whether the following key has somehow been modified:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes

Try restoring it to the defaults, i.e., [first and foremost] MS Shell Dlg -> Microsoft Sans Serif — possibly try other values as well, if brave enough or/and you have time to play. [The result should be immediately visible — even without trying, you should see plenty of space to the right of these numbers, in their respective fields — after logging off and back on, and opening your windows colour picker.]