>Is there a way to change the colors of individual menu bars and pads using the menu designer that comes with VFP8?

At a glance, the DEFINE menu, pad & bar still have the color schemes/pairs listed, so it might still work. I haven't even looked at this stuff since 2.x, however...I'll leave you to test it, unless someone else knows for sure if it still works. (I'm busy with both yakking & posting right now, sorry.)

The other problem is, it's extremely non-standard. How many apps do you see with multi-colored menus these days? :-) It would be mighty easy to make some users unhappy with a color scheme that has colors they don't care for or is just plain too "loud." But that's enough "lecturing," maybe you have some valid reason...