Enable dark theme on Windows 10 with a single click or hotkey using Easy Dark Mode

[harlan4096]

Dark themes have been gaining popularity over the past few years among computer and mobile users, and companies have started to integrate dark modes into their programs and operating systems. Darker themes are easy on the eyes and may even help to save some battery, at least on phones.

Support for dark mode on Windows 10 is debatable, it works in very few elements in the operating system at the time of writing.

Some apps support partial dark modes only in which only some interface elements such as the titlebar are painted in dark colors.

Device Manager and Calculator are examples of legacy programs which don't support dark mode.

Easy Dark Mode is a free tool for Windows that helps you switch to Dark mode in a single click. While it does not take care of programs that don't support the operating system's Dark Mode, it may be useful to users who use Dark Mode at times but not all the time.

The application is portable, though you can set it to run on Windows boot if required. The program starts in the system-tray area and has a square icon which is diagonally divided into black and white.

Left-click on the icon and watch the magic. Exiting the program does not switch to the previous theme, you'll need to switch back manually. To revert to the light theme, click on the tray icon again. The program uses Windows 10's Dark theme setting. Experienced users maybe aware that the operating system's theme is reflected in elements such as Windows Explorer or Settings, and also works in supported applications like Firefox or Chrome.

One-click or keyboard shortcut

So, why use this program? Windows 10's method to switch to dark mode is not a single-click procedure. You have to open Settings > Personalization > Colors > scroll down and set Dark Mode. Besides, with Easy Dark Mode you can do this with a keyboard shortcut.

To define a hotkey for the program, right-click the tray icon and select a key from the drop-down menu. You also have the option to use the Alt, Control, Shift and Windows keys as part of the combination, which is useful in case you're using hotkeys for other applications.

Here's how Easy Dark Mode works

Tray Icon (Context menu)

The Start Mode lets you switch between the dark and light Windows theme when you run Easy Dark Mode. The second option, Switch Panel, places a floating icon on the screen. It is functionally identical to the system tray icon. This isn't enabled by default, and you can hide it when it is not required. I think it could be useful when working with full screen applications, but the tray icon does a fine job. You can change the switch panel's size to make it less distracting. The "Theme" menu item in the program's tray icon can be used to change the interface to dark/light mode.

Note: The "Tools" option in the tray icon's context menu are web shortcuts for other tools from the same developer.

You'll need Windows 10 version 1803 or above for Easy Dark Mode to work. While it does the exact same thing that's available in the OS, the convenience of the hotkey and the single-click switch is quite nice, and something that I think should have been available in Windows. We have a dark mode switch on the quick settings panel in Android, don't we?
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