Operating System

Step-by-Step Guide: How to Enable Dark Mode in Windows 10

These days most people like to use dark mode on their PCs and phones. Also, sometimes the brightness of your screen might annoy your eyes, and you wish to have a dark screen.

In this article, we are going to answer your questions about the dark mode, such as How to Enable Dark Mode in Windows 10?

Which Operating System Supports Dark Mode?

Several operating systems support dark mode.

  • Windows
  • iOS (only iOS 13 and newer support dark mode)
  • macOS (Catalina and more recent builds support dark mode)
  • Android

Steps for Enabling Dark Mode in Different Parts of Windows 10:

Dark Mode for Apps:

1.Go to the Start menu and click on Settings.

Enable Dark Mode in Windows 10

2.Go to the Personalization section.

Enable Dark Mode in Windows 10

3.Choose Colors from the left side menu.

Enable Dark Mode in Windows 10

4.Under the Choose your color option, choose Dark from the drop-down menu.

5.Under the Choose your default app mode option, choose Dark.

Enable Dark Mode in Windows 10

Dark Mode in Microsoft Office:

The dark mode is available on Microsoft Office, but if you need to set it manually and it is not enabled by default.

  1. First of all, open the Microsoft Office app.
  2. Go to File and choose Options.
  3. When a window pop up, go to the General tab.
  4. Under the Personalize your copy of Microsoft Office section, go to Office Theme and choose Black from the drop-down menu.
Dark mode in Microsoft Office

Note: The selected theme will exert for all Office apps. So, if you set the Excel theme to dark mode, Word will be in dark theme as well.

Dark Mode in Microsoft Edge:

Microsoft Edge web browser supports dark mode, but it is not set to dark mode by default, and you need to set it manually.

  1. To do so, click on the three dots on the right side of the window.
  2. Click on the Settings option.
  3. Now, hit the Appearance from the left side menu.
  4. Under the Overall appearance, click on Dark or System Default.
Dark mode in Microsoft Edge

when you enable dark mode in Microsoft Edge, the toolbar, title bar, and menus will only turn to dark mode. Most web pages stay as they were, except those that are set to respect your dark theme. If you want to make the whole web dark, you can get a browser extension like Turn Off the Lights.

Dark Mode in Firefox, Chrome, and Other Apps:

Google Chrome respects your set color mode in the system settings, but if you want to install your theme, you can cancel it. Some of the dark themes in Chrome are different from the default dark mode. Firefox has a built-in dark theme which you can enable whenever you want. One of the dark theme you can install for Google Chrome is the Morpheon Dark theme.

Websites like Gmail and YouTube also support dark mode. You need to install a browser extension, which can change the whole website to dark for other websites.

Dark mode in Firefox, Chrome, and other apps

Dark Mode for Windows Desktop Applications:

One of the biggest problems with the dark theme is that it does not affect all of your Windows applications. For example, some apps like Notepad remain as they were.

For desktop applications, Windows has a built-in dark mode which you can enable by:

  1. Go to Settings and choose Ease of Access.
  2. from the left side menu, click on High contrast.
  3. Now, turn on the Turn on high contrast option.
  4. Then, under the Choose a theme section, select High Contrast Black from the drop-down menu.
  5. To save the changes, hit Apply.
Dark mode for Windows

This high contrast theme option turns most of the desktop apps to dark. But they do not look so well. High contrast themes are for increasing the contrast, which helps you to read the screen easier. This feature does not look as good as a modern dark mode.

Dark mode for Windows

If you want a better dark mode for your desktop apps that do not change with the system setting, you can install a third-party application. To do so, there are a few apps, like WindowBlinds from Stardock. To get this app, you need to pay $9.99, but it has a free 30-day trial, so you can check if it is suitable for you or not.

When you set a theme in the WindowBlinds app, it exerts for everything like desktop apps, UWP apps, dialog boxes, etc.

  1. Install the WindowBlinds.
  2. Open the app and go to the Style tab.
  3. Choose your favorite theme and hit Apply Style to desktop button.
Dark mode for Windows

You can make your own theme in WindowBlinds.  To do so, click on Modify Style link under any theme you want. You can set anything you want there, but there is still an easier way.

To do so, go to the WinCustomize website and choose the WindowBlinds. You can get any type of WindowBlinds-compatible skins there. After you download your favorite skin, double-click on its file. Then, your downloaded theme will be added to the Style tab in WindowBlinds. So you can exert or customize it from there.

Here is a picture of File Explorer with the dark mode skin exerted via WindowBlinds.

Dark mode for Windows

What is Dark Mode in Windows 10?

These days it is nearly impossible to take our eyes off the screen. We have fun watching TV, we work by using a laptop or computer, and we keep in touch with our friends and families by using our phones. All of these screens put a huge amount of pressure on our eyes.

How to Enable Dark Mode in Windows 10?

To solve this issue, many companies, programs, and apps decided to produce a feature called Dark mode. A dark mode is a color option that contains muted colors like greys and blacks, which do not harm your eyes as much as brighter colors.

Is It Nice to Use Dark Mode? Is It Good for Our Eyes?

These days many people that use laptops and computers, suffer from eye problems. The screen light of electronic devices has a negative effect on our sense of sight. Windows 10 presents Dark mode to solve this problem. People wonder whether the dark mode is good for our eyes? Unluckily, there is no brightness control option in dark mode.

The violent light of the screen is not the only effective factor in damaging our eyes. There are other factors like, the number of hours that we look at the screen and natural light. Yet, there is no scientific evidence, based on that dark mode decrease eye problems. The best thing that we can do is to use dark mode at night and adjust the intensity of the brightness, to eschew the intense light when there is only little time left to go to sleep.

Why Should I Use Dark Mode in Windows 10?

If you spend a lot of time in front of your monitor, you might know about eye strain which is a part of computer sight syndrome for a long time. You can decrease this problem with dark mode or a dark theme. In the following, we describe three main reasons why it is better to use dark mode:

  1. Dark mode reduces the pressure from your eyes and decreases the emission of blue light, which can hurt your health. To have good sleep, you need a hormone called Melatonin. And the blue light of the screen can harness the melatonin’s secretion. Also, a dark mode can increase visibility which helps you to use your PC easier in low light.
  2. The devices which have dark mode and OLED or AMOLED can save energy consumption, this can boost the battery life of the device. This decrease the power of showing each pixel. So, it will need less background power.
  3. Dark themes look more pleasing aesthetically. Dark mode makes a new and mysterious feeling in contrast with the classic white look on any screen interface. The graphs, pictures, and dashboards with light colors look so good in the dark theme.

Can Dark Mode Really Save Energy?

Most people that use laptops want to work with them for a long time without needing to recharge them. Certainly every single option that can help us to save our PC’s battery life will matter to us. So, a small option like dark mode can really make a difference and save the PC’s battery life for us!

If you use an OLED display, the dark mode can affect the battery life outstandingly. Because it makes the dark pixels turn off. LCD display uses the energy for showing dark and bright pixels totally (keep in mind that still, dark pixels use less power than light pixels). So, a dark mode can significantly affect battery life. But we cannot say how much it affects because it depends on the screen being OLED or LCD.

Conclusion

In this article, we described how to enable dark mode in different parts and apps in Windows 10. Have you ever tried any of the methods? Do you know any more methods to enable dark mode in Windows 10?

We hope this article was helpful to you.

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