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How to use dark mode on Windows
Windows 11

How to use dark mode on Windows

May 25, 2023

 

Dark mode is everywhere now. If you’re regularly using a desktop or laptop to browse the web or for working then dark mode can really help ease the pressure on your eyes and make screen use more bearable.

Fortunately, Windows has some dark mode settings that are easy to turn on to turn the brightness down a bit. As well as some eye care settings that are well worth testing as well. So we’re here to help you tweak things to suit your needs.

What is dark mode?

If you don’t know already dark mode is a display setting that essentially swaps the traditional black text on a white background for a more eye-friendly white-on-black theme.

Dark mode essentially reduces the amount of light the screen transmits and not only makes the screen easier on your eye but also maintains readability.

Dark mode is a popular setting for many people and appears in a variety of apps including WhatsApp, Chrome, Instagram, Snapchat and more. It’s also possible to easily turn it on system-wide on Android and iPhone too.

With that widespread popularity you’ll be unsurprised to learn that dark mode is also available in Windows.

Windows dark mode

How to turn on dark mode in Windows

Windows makes it possible to set dark mode as a system wide setting really easily. In order to turn it on follow these steps:

  1. Press the Windows Start button and type Settings
  2. Then from Windows settings look for “personalisation” from the left hand menu
  3. From there look for “choose you mode” and select “dark” from the drop down
  4. If you choose “custom” you can delete to apply dark mode to Windows as a whole or to apps in particular

It’s also possible to access dark mode in other ways. Hit the Windows Start button and search for “turn on dark mode systemwide” and you’ll get straight to the settings. Alternatively you can right click on your desktop and click “personalise” and then click on the colours menu and choose dark mode from the options.

Try nightlight instead

Try Night Light instead of dark mode

If you’re finding that you have an issue with screen brightness playing havoc with your eyes then another option to turn to in Windows is Night Light.

This is a mode that puts a warmer colour on your screen and takes out some of the harsh blue light. Night Light is an alternative to the low blue light modes you might find on your monitor (we’d also recommend using those if you have a lot of headaches).

To try it out follow these steps:

  1. Press the Windows Start button and type Settings
  2. Then from Windows settings, under “system” look for “display” settings
  3. Click that then click on Night Light settings
  4. On the Night Light settings you can then adjust the strength, turn it on or off and schedule the mode on and off at specific times
Task Manager Dark Mode

Windows Task Manager dark mode

As well as system wide dark mode settings Windows also allows you to apply dark mode to particular apps. For example it’s possible to turn on dark mode for Task Manager in Windows 11 and you should too because it’s glorious. To do this:

  1. Press CTRL+Shift+Esc at the same time to open Task Manager
  2. Click on the three bar menu on the left hand side
  3. Then tap on the settings cog at the bottom
  4. Then choose dark mode from under the app theme settings or select “use system settings” if you’re running dark mode across Window 11

What does system wide dark mode do?

You’ve now seen that it’s possible to turn on dark mode settings in Windows and one of those settings applies dark mode on a system wide basis. You might wonder what this means. Well, when applied system wide the dark mode settings will effect all the standard built-in apps in Windows. This includes things like Windows File Explorer, your settings menu, Edge, Microsoft Store and more.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that dark mode will be applied to everything though, so if there are particular third-party apps that you use that you’d like to see dark mode on then you might need to do it manually.

Dark mode on Chrome

Dark mode on Chrome in Windows

If you’ve turned on dark mode system wide then you should find that both Chrome and Edge run with dark mode applied as standard. However, you might find there are some things that aren’t exactly “dark” still in your browser. Don’t worry because you can change some other settings to improve that too. One is changing your profile to a darker setting:

  1. Open Chrome and click on the three dot settings menu on the right
  2. Click settings
  3. Then click “Customise your Chrome Profile”
  4. On the next page choose one of the darker theme colours (like black and grey) and that should make things like the address bar and bookmark bar turn dark

The other things you can do is to make Chrome force dark mode for any website, even if the website isn’t doesn’t offer dark mode as standard:

  1. Enter the following address in your URL bar: chrome://flags/#enable-force-dark
  2. This will bring up a hidden Chrome settings menu and the Force Dark Mode option
  3. Go to the drop-down menu next to Force Dark Mode and select Enabled
  4. At the bottom, hit the Relaunch button to restart your browser
high contast dark mode

Try high contrast mode too

If you find that dark mode isn’t applying to enough places in Windows then another thing to try is the high contrast settings. These are themes and apply a darker theme to Windows and contrasting text. There are various themes to choose from including aquatic, desert, dusk and night sky. To access these themes:

  1. Press the Windows Start button and type Settings
  2. The look for accessibility settings on the left
  3. Click that and choose a contrast theme from the drop down
  4. Click apply

These themes might not be for everyone but they can make things easier to read even in dark mode without being so taxing on the eyes.