In Windows 10 the visual appearance of the operating system has changed a fair bit with all those gray backgrounds, white title bars, etc. With the light color scheme, Window 10 looks minimal when it comes to modern apps and the settings panel. This is all good and well, but if you think the color scheme is too light for your eyes or if you just want to see the dark side of Windows, then you can actually enable the Dark Mode in Windows 10.
Here is how you can easily enable Dark Mode.
Note: since we are going to be fumbling around with the Windows Registry, make sure you have a good backup of it.
Enable Dark Mode in Windows 10
Before going any further, one thing to keep in mind is that Dark Mode in Windows 10 is not yet complete. So you might find inconsistencies. Only follow the procedure if you know what you are doing.
Enabling Dark Mode in Windows 10 is easy; all you have to do is create a couple of registry keys. To do that, press “Win + R,” type regedit and press the Enter button.
The above action will open the Windows Registry. Here, navigate to the following key.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\
We need to create a new sub key for the Themes key. To do that, right-click on “Themes” and select the option “New” and then “Key.”
Name the new key as “Personalize,” and press the Enter button to confirm the name.
Once the key has been created, select the key, right-click on the right pane and select the “New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value” option. This action will create a new DWORD value.
Name the new value as “AppsUseLightTheme,” and press the Enter button. By default, the value data is set to “0,” so there is no need to change any value data.
Once you are done creating the new value, we need to create another one. Navigate to the following key in the Windows Registry.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Personalize\
If you cannot find the “Personalize” key, then just create one as shown in the above steps. Once you are at the Key, right-click on the right pane, select the “New” option, and then “DWORD (32-bit) Value.”
This action creates an empty value. Rename the value to “AppsUseLightTheme.” Just like before, the default value data is set to “0,” so there is no need to change any value data.
Once you are done creating the keys, just restart or sign out and sign in again to see the changes. As you can see, the Dark Mode is not a completed feature (the title bar is messed up). But once completed, you might find native options to enable or disable it (hopefully).
For now there are inconsistencies in the Dark Mode like the minimize, maximize and close buttons not appearing. If you want to revert back, either change the value data for both values to “1,” or just delete the registry values that you have created earlier.
Do comment below sharing your thoughts and experiences about using the above method to enable Dark Mode in Windows 10.