Windows 10 Gets A Light Mode With Preview Build 18282

Remember when concerned parents said that staring too long at a screen would make you go blind? Well, they weren't exactly right about that, but it turns out that exposing your eyeballs to bright light at night can be unhealthy. That's why so many companies have pushed "dark modes" into their products, but Microsoft took the opposite tack with Windows 10 Preview Build 18282 by revamping the operating system's Light Mode.

Light Mode is currently just the default setting for Windows 10; Dark Mode is the only one that makes actual changes. Preview Build 18282 changes that by making the entire Windows 10 user interface, including the "taskbar, Start menu, Action Center, touch keyboard, and more," lighter than usual. That way there's a difference when choosing Light Mode instead of basically making it the "off" option for the Dark Mode.

Microsoft said you can enable the new Light Mode by going to Settings > Personalization > Colors and selecting Light from the "Choose your color" dropdown. Windows 10 won't look any different right when you update, and will instead use a new Custom setting that keeps the dark user interface elements present in the current Light Mode without going totally dark.

The company also introduced a new wallpaper for use with Light Mode that can be selected with the new build. Aside from that change, Preview Build 18282 also includes new snipping options (delayed snips and window snips) as well as Narrator improvements to improve accessibility. The company updated the Windows 10 update process, too, so it'll be easier to pause updates or intelligently set Active Hours to avoid restarts.

There's also a grab bag of bug fixes in Preview Build 18282 as well as the usual known issues. A problem affecting developers who switch between rings in the Windows Insider Program is still present, but the other issues seem minor, including one that prevents PDFs from loading correctly in Microsoft Edge and another that sees Remote Desktop show a black screen to some users. (Among other things.)

Preview Build 18282 is available now to Fast ring members of the Windows Insider Program. Microsoft once again warned potential users that Fast ring builds at this stage of development are even less reliable than normal--anyone feeling squeamish about that might want to switch to the Slow ring. Of course, if the myriad problems affecting the so-called Windows 10 October 2018 Update are any indicator, even those can be risky.