How to change the battery power meter color darker or load new meter?

The X61 battery power meter on the status bar tray color is white background
with light gray meter. I have difficulty reading it. I can only see the
battery power percentage when I move the mouse over it to show the number.

How can I change the battery power meter color scheme?

Or, where can I load another power meter program. My X61 runs in Vista Home
Basic.

I remember when I had the ThinkPad R31, IBM support gave me the link to
download the power meter program, when mine disappeared. But that was in XP.

Thanks.

 

Try adjusting the transparency to a lower level. This will darken the
status bar. Frankly, turn off transparency altogether and make Vista run
a bit more like XP. Google: turn off vista transparency.

I do not believe you can change the system icon for the power meter.
You might be bound by the startup program installed that overrides the
Vista icon that is a dark background.

To turn off transparency altogether, right-click the desktop, select
Personalize, select Theme and toggle Vista Basic.

Q