Windows 11 tiptoes further into dark mode with new dialogs

Some portions of the OS are still stuck on light

Windows 11 launched way back in October 2021 and has become Microsoft’s must-have OS thanks to the impending end-of-life for Windows 10. After all that time, there are still significant portions of the OS that don’t do dark mode. However, Redmond is making significant progress, bringing a couple of key dialog boxes into compliance.

As of Windows Insider Build 26120.6972 (beta channel) and 26220.6972 (dev channel) or higher, you can now get the Run and Folder Options dialog boxes to appear in dark mode. However, to make them dark, you need to use the ViVeTool, a utility that enables hidden features.

To enable dark mode in the first place, navigate to Settings->Personalization->Colors and select Dark from the “Choose your mode” menu.

Enable dark mode - Click to enlarge

Now, download ViVeTool if you don’t have the utility already. Create a folder called C:\vive and unzip the ViVeTool’s contents to it.

Launch an elevated command prompt by searching for cmd, right-clicking on it, and selecting “Run as administrator.”

Launch elevated cmd prompt - Click to enlarge

In the command prompt terminal that appears, change your directory to C:\vive.

cd \vive

Then enter the following command, which will enable dark mode for the Run Dialog, Folder Options, and also for File progress windows and “are you sure” popups that appear when you try to delete or rename certain files or folders. The latter two dark mode instances were added as hidden features back in August, but they still aren’t part of Windows 11’s default setup.

vivetool /enable /id:57857165,57994323,48433719,49453572,58383338,59270880,59203365

Use vivetool to enable dark mode - Click to enlarge

After you’ve entered the command, reboot your computer. You should now be able to see dark mode when you hit Windows + R to open the Run dialog box and in Explorer when you select Options from the … menu.

Run and Folder Options in dark mode - Click to enlarge

You’ll also see dark mode in action when you’re copying files and watching the progress bar.

File progress bar in dark mode - Click to enlarge

And you’ll see dark mode when you try to rename or delete a folder that requires a higher level of permissions.

Folder access denied in dark mode - Click to enlarge

But no, you still won’t see dark mode when you right click on a file or folder and select Properties.

Folder properties does not have dark mode - Click to enlarge

And you don’t see it when you attempt to rename something you do have permission to access but which requires a confirmation. For example, when I tried to rename cmd.exe to cmd.ex, I got a dialog box warning me about the dangers of changing a file extension, but it was in white.

Rename confirmation does not have dark mode - Click to enlarge

It’s clear that some of the Windows features that don’t obey dark mode are legacy apps that Microsoft doesn’t really want you to use anymore - all of Control Panel has a white background for this reason. However, we expect Microsoft to roll out more dark mode features to File Explorer and to make those features work in the production builds of Windows in the near future, because the company has no plans to replace its tried-and-trusted file management utility. ®