Come Over to the Dark Side of Windows 10

This tip is for those who feel comfortable editing the registry. Please create a restore point before making any changes to the Windows registry.

Windows 10 has a hidden dark theme, but in order to use it, you have to make some changes to your registry. So those of you who don’t feel comfortable messing around in the Windows Registry, this tip isn’t for you. And even if you think you’re a Windows ace, don’t forget to create a system restore point before proceeding with this tip. To make a System Restore Point in Windows 10, right-click the start button, click on Control Panel, make sure you’re in Icon view (top right of Control Panel), click on System then System Protection, then click “Create” — “Apply” —- “OK”. You can give your restore point a name, like “Dark Theme”. Windows automatically adds the date.

In Windows there are always 2 or 3 ways to do a task. Another way to do this is open the start menu and start type Create a Restore Point…. A link to Create a Restore Point in Control Panel will be shown at the top….click it and do the above.

OK let’s take Windows over to the dark side, shall we? First, we’ll show you what the default light theme looks like next to the hidden dark theme:

Above: The default Windows 10 light theme. Blah!

Look out below! The snazzy–if you like dark things like night and chocolate–dark theme shines below:

And when you change to the dark theme, you not only change things like Settings and other system dialogs, you also change some Windows apps – like Calculator:

Above: Calculator wears the default theme, and below it’s stylin’ with the dark theme. See?

So all of you who are comfortable doing registry hacks, let’s go:

1. Press and hold the Windows Key and tap the R key to open a Run command
2. Type REGEDIT in the Run box to open the registry editor and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Personalize.
3. Right-click on the Personalize key and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
4. Name the new DWORD  “AppsUseLightTheme”. Do not include the quotes.
5. Right click on the “AppsUseLightTheme” DWORD and make sure the Data Value is set to 0 (zero) – it should be set to 0 by default.
6. Now with the registry editor still open, navigate to :
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
7. Right click on the Windows key and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value – and make sure the DWORD Data Value is set to 0 (zero).

For those with 64-bit Windows who are wondering about the 32-bit DWORD – don’t trouble you’re little head about it. Both 64-bit and 32-bit Windows work the same way when it comes to moving to the dark side.

Now close the registry editor and restart you computer — Bam! You’ve gone over the Windows Dark Side.

Please take note that not all apps will gracefully submit to the dark side – File Explorer, for example. But enough of your system will be wearing the cloak of darkness that you’ll not forget you’re living on the dark side – well the dark side of Windows 10 anyway!

Oh shoot! I forgot. What if you want to go back into the light again? So glad you asked: If you ever want to go back to the default light theme, just change the value of both the AppsUseLightTheme DWORD keys that you added (above) from 0 to 1 or just delete them from the registry. You’ll need to restart your computer before you’re back into the light.

For now — welcome to the dark side, my friends!