The Light theme has been overhauled in this release. It is a system-wide elegant theme that brings lighter colors to the Start menu, taskbar, Action Center, touch keyboard, and other elements of the OS. It even includes a new default desktop wallpaper.
Prior to May 2019 Update, Windows 10 had two color modes - light and dark. The light mode allows apps and programs to use white color, while the dark mode enabled the use of darker colors and accents.
Windows Light Theme
With the May 2019 Update, or Windows 10 version 1903, Microsoft redesigned the light theme so that apps, elements and other core UI elements are all shaded light, so users can experience a greater distinction between the light and dark themes.
The new theme modes can be found by navigating to Settings > Personalization > Themes > Color. From there, you can choose Light, Dark and Custom mode. The custom mode lets you mix and match components of both themes such as combining light apps with dark core UI elements or dark apps with light core UI elements.
Once you turn on the light theme, you'll notice that even the context menu are shaded with lighter colors. On Start menu, the context menu is light shaded and also have Fluent Design. The volume flyout, WiFi flyout and time & date have the light theme as well.
Microsoft has also updated the icons of apps such as Microsoft Store, Settings pinned to the taskbar when you switch to light theme. This is to ensure that taskbar-pinned apps are visible in a light background.
You can use Dark option for the Windows Mode and light option for the app mode to use Windows 10 in the old light theme. You can also Windows 10 in a light color and app in dark mode by inverting both options.
Windows supports Light and Dark themes as a personalization option in Windows settings. Windows uses Light mode by default, but users can choose Dark mode, which changes much of the UI to a dark color. Users might prefer this setting because it's easier on the eyes in lower-light environments, or they might simply prefer a darker interface in general. Also, darker UI colors can reduce the battery usage on some types of computer displays, such as OLED screens.
The reason we use "black or dark" and "white or light" is because there are additional colors such as the Accent color that can tint various foreground and background colors. So you might in fact see light blue text on a dark blue background in some parts of the UI, and that would still be considered acceptable Dark mode UI.
In practice, this means that in Dark mode, most of the UI will be dark, and in Light mode most of the UI will be light. The concept of a background in Windows is the large area of colors in an app, or the page color. The concept of a foreground in Windows is the text color.
There are many approaches to implementing Dark mode support in an application. Some apps contain two sets of UIs (one with a light color and one with a dark color). Some Windows UI frameworks, such as WinUI 3, automatically detect a system's theme and adjust the UI to follow the system theme. To fully support Dark mode, the entirety of an app's surface must follow the dark theme.
Not all Win32 applications support Dark mode, so Windows gives Win32 apps a light title bar by default. If you are prepared to support Dark mode, you can ask Windows to draw the dark title bar instead when Dark mode is enabled.
This article provides examples of ways to detect system theme changes, and request a light or dark title bar for your Win32 application's window. It does not cover specifics of how to repaint and render your app UI using a Dark mode color set.
To do this in a Win32 application, use Windows::UI::Color and detect if a color can be classified as light or dark. To use Windows::UI::Color, you need to import (in pch.h) the Windows.UI.ViewManagement header from winrt.
This is not a model for real analysis of color brightness. It is good for quick calculations that require you to determine if a color can be classified as light or dark. Theme colors can often be light but not pure white, or dark but not pure black.
Dark mode is defined as a dark background with a contrasting light foreground. Since IsColorLight checks if a color is considered light, you can use that function to see if the foreground is light. If the foreground is light, then Dark mode is enabled.
Windows doesn't know if an application can support Dark mode, so it assumes that it can't for backwards compatibility reasons. Some Windows development frameworks, such as Windows App SDK, support Dark mode natively and change certain UI elements without any additional code. Win32 apps often don't support Dark mode, so Windows gives Win32 apps a light title bar by default.
After passing hWnd (the handle to the window you want to change) as your first parameter, you need to pass in DWMA_USE_IMMERSIVE_DARK_MODE as the dwAttribute parameter. This is a constant in the DWM API that lets the Windows frame be drawn in Dark mode colors when the Dark mode system setting is enabled. If you switch to Light mode, you will have to change DWMA_USE_IMMERSIVE_DARK_MODE from 20 to 0 for the title bar to be drawn in light mode colors.
Microsoft has a new light mode for those who aren't ready to join the dark side. Dark mode has been all the rage of late, but not everyone is a fan of the inky interface. For those folks, the May 2019 update introduces a new light theme to Windows 10 that brightens up the operating system.
The new light mode will be the default look for Windows 10, replacing a UI that featured several dark elements, including the taskbar. Now Windows 10 will have a consistent transparent white appearance across all menus and apps. You can also find out how to turn on the Black Theme in Microsoft Office.
Of course, if you prefer darker tones you can still follow this guide to enable Dark Mode. And you can also enable Dark Mode in Chrome if you use Google's browser. If you'd prefer to create your own theme, be sure to check out this breakdown of how to do so. You can also install third-party themes from the Windows Store or make less dramatic changes to the Windows 10 UI by customizing your desktop background.
Not everyone is a Windows dark-theme fan. (Hard to believe, I know.) For those who prefer to go to the light, Microsoft is introducing a new Windows Light theme -- plus a number of additional settings tweaks in its latest Windows 10 19H1 test build.
That Windows 10 test build, No. 18282, which Microsoft is rolling out to Fast Ring Insiders on November 14, adds a new light theme which turns all system UI elements light. This includes the taskbar, Start menu, Action Center, tough keyboard and more. As part of this new light theme, Microsoft is adding a new default wallpaper highlighting Windows Light. (See image of that wallpaper embedded in this post, above.)
In PowerShell in Windows Terminal, the built in light themes are unusable because the command is a really light yellow, and numbers are completely invisible. From what I can tell, that's not customizable in the options. I can change the yellows and it doesn't affect this.
Today the software giant releases Build 18282 on the 19H1 branch, and introduces some interesting new features. For 2018 most software companies have been giving us dark themes. For its next feature update, due out in spring 2019, Microsoft will be introducing a Light alternative.
You can enable this new theme, which I have to say I really like, by going to Settings > Personalization > Colors. Click the dropdown under 'Choose your color' and select Light. The new theme changes many elements of the OS UI, including the taskbar, Start menu, Action Center, touch keyboard and so on. Not all elements are currently Light-friendly though.
Half of Insiders will get the option to test new snipping features in this build -- delay snip and window snip -- and printing has been improved. As well as supporting the Light theme, the printing options now include icons, and long printer names will wrap around instead of being cut off.
Windows 10 has offered both a light and dark theme for some time now. But with version 1903, the light theme gets a major overhaul. In previous versions the default task bar and start menu color was black, but you could choose between light and dark for applications and most recently, File Explorer, which gained a dark mode in the October 2018 update.
The new light theme is a true light theme, affecting not only the app backgrounds but also the taskbar and start menu. The color choices are clean and refreshing, and it really look great. It also includes a new background, based on the original blue Windows 10 background, but lightened up to match the new theme.
Text on the taskbar switches from white text on black to black text on white, and to avoid being lost on the task bar, some of the white icons such as mail and Store are color reversed to make sure they are still easily found. The File Explorer icon also got a makeover since it was too light for the light theme. Microsoft has subtly changed the color scheme to work better in either light or dark modes.
Set the time after which the dark theme is on. Very convenient settings in the night light. I would like to apply this to the theme. I don't think it will take much time to do that. It would be great to have such an opportunity.
Before you try any of them, you will need to download and install UltraUXThemePatcher. It's an app that makes changes to your system files so you can run non-Microsoft approved themes. Some themes also need additional apps or tools. Check the developer's instructions before you try and install anything.
Once you have installed all the necessary support tools, you should put any themes you download into C:/Windows/Resources/Themes. To switch to a newly downloaded theme, head to Settings > Personalization > Themes. Your new theme should be visible under the Apply a theme subheading. 2ff7e9595c
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