“I don’t think that’s it, as the background for the fixed width Editor should be a different color from the page. But certainly worth checking if my suggestions don’t work.” - Look at the screen shot again, all the same color.
One last note - is it possible to close this topic and mark it solved? I think suggestions by AntoniDol probably are the most appropriate to mark as “answer”, if there is. Sorry if the answer is obvious, I’m normally just a lurker.
Or maybe File > Options > Main Editor > Appearance > Colors Tab
Seems all of my ideas have already been thought of, but would be very helpful for some changes to the defaults. 
I second that. By no means an expert or even competent, I am more comfortable with Scriv today than I was two years ago. Curbing my enthusiasm, but doubling down on determination, helped. The more versatile the program is, the longer it takes even to do simple things. At the age of 75, I have spent six hours already today trying to figure out why I can’t “print to pdf”, and why I can’t make that option happen. But I am optimistic that I will, before the week is out. Scriv has enormous potential to make a writer out of a person, but you can’t command it to write, any more than you can order a puppy to write the story for ya. Just a rusty penny for thought 
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Thank you, kindly, for noticing my issue.
It didn’t, it only offered Microsoft XPS Document Writer, which my friends’ computers couldn’t read. But thanks to some online help, I figured out how to enable it via Windows Features. I am a happy camper now.
November_Sierra, you are great! 
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I didn’t even notice you’re on Windows. 
But glad you found a way!
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As much as I love and evangelize Scrivener, I don’t think it makes easy to ‘just write’. On the contrary, I feel there is always too much surrounding writing, that could make some steps back.
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When first creating a project, you are asked to find a location, give it a name, and save it. Even if you don’t even know if you will save your scribbling. Scrivener could just create a temporary file, and only ask the user for a name and location when he/she chooses to Save.
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There are a lot of elements crowding the UI. Even if they are not needed, will be needed sometimes, but not while writing. Buttons for sharing, adding bookmarks, creating new documents, adding attachments… All things that could just emerge only when invoked.
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The editor immediately shows a formatting bar. If the background philosophy is to separate content and formatting, there is no reason for it to be immediately exhibited. In particular, considering that it might not be the real formatting.
Everything can be customized. That’s fine. But now, in this moment, I want to just write!
Paolo
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Then use composition mode.
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Or just open any notes program and start jotting (typing) what you need to get down. Once that is done, you can transfer into Scrivener.
I use Obsidian for that stuff personally.
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Hi Paolo - Your responses were very well thought out and written, but for me none of that stuff is a distraction. I was just posting about one tiny little oversight that made it actually impossible to record thoughts. Thanks for contributing!
Found the mute button. Thanks to those who read carefully enough to understand the problem. For the rest, enjoy having conversations with the other people like you!
Or maybe you would rather enjoy the problem rather than solve it? Either way, there is good advice in here for people also wanting to use Scrivener in a simplistic fashion. Which is how most people use it–including me.
Or you might honestly find Scrivener is not for you. Also fine, the point is to keep writing.
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They solved the problem that was described in the original post, way up-thread, with good advice to tweak the default settings a bit to have the editor work the way they want.
Everything else in this thread is essentially off-topic. I’ve fixed the thread title, as its open-ended nature and provocative phrasing was an obvious source of confusion.
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