How to activate the dark mode of Windows 10

Windows 10 has included some form of a dark mode for years, but in the past, it was necessary to use the Windows registry editor to activate it. That’s no longer necessary, and activating the dark mode in Windows 10 takes a couple of seconds. If you prefer Windows applications to look darker than the grayish white that dominates Microsoft’s operating system; a feature that will radically change the look of your Windows is the dark mode.

Dress your Windows in black

Customize

To activate the dark mode of Windows 10 you need to go to the System Configuration, section Customization. However, there is a faster way to get there, by going to the Windows desktop and right-clicking. From the drop-down menu, choose Customize.

Colors

The Windows settings customization section opens by default in the first tab, which is the Windows background settings tab. If you want to switch to the dark mode you may also want to change the Windows background to a darker one so that there is not so much contrast, but this is up to you. The dark theme is found in the Colors section.

Dark

Slide the window vertically until you reach the Choose the default application mode setting, where you can choose between the Light or Dark theme. When you click dark, the background color of the window and other open Windows 10 application windows will automatically change.

With this, you have already activated the dark mode, although I recommend that you check your Windows color settings. Colors that work well on a light background don’t necessarily work well on a dark background; you may want to change the main color to a darker one because it’s the one applied to the taskbar.

Where is this dark theme used?

For now, the dark mode only applies to the applications that support it, which are essentially the applications pre-installed in the system such as the calendar, calculator, clock, time or the system configuration itself. It also affects the taskbar and the start menu.

Microsoft is testing deeper changes that will apply the dark mode to the Windows file explorer as well, but so far it has not been confirmed that this new feature will be available to all users in the final version of Windows.