- Apr 19, 2016
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Windows ‘dark mode’ first made its appearance back in Windows XP. Part Easter egg, part secret option, this is a dark theme that turns parts of your desktop a cool black. It doesn’t turn everything dark though, just some desktop windows and some Windows apps. If you would like to know how to enable dark mode in Windows 10, read on!
I don’t know why Microsoft still keeps dark mode secret, or at least, doesn’t make it an obvious option when theming the desktop. Regardless of the reasons why, it isn’t too difficult to enable the dark theme in Windows 10. It just needs a bit of a registry tweak.
Enable dark mode in Windows 10
1. Type or paste ‘regedit’ into the Search Windows box.
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Personalize.
3. If you don’t have a Personalize key, create one by right clicking Themes, select New and then Key. Then click on the right pane in the Personalize folder and New, DWORD. Name it ‘AppsUseLightTheme’ and ensure the value is 0.
4. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Personalize. Ensure the value of the key is set to 0. Create the key as above if you don’t have it.
5. Log out of Windows or reboot the machine and then log back in.
6. Navigate to Settings and open the window and it should now be an attractive dark theme.
7. To disable dark mode just modify the two registry entries to 1.
As mentioned, it doesn’t enable an entire dark mode, just aspects of the Windows desktop environment. For a complete transformation, check out some of the many desktop themes in the Windows Store.
More Windows 10 tweaks:
How to change icon spacing in Windows 10 desktop
How to fix the Start Menu and Taskbar in Windows 10
How to change your computer’s name in Windows 10
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