Windows 8.1 Dark Theme

Comment: Dark Mode sucks – these are its disadvantages

Is the Dark Mode in Windows cool or does it go down the drain? Editor Sebastian Kolar doesn’t pay too much attention to it. Just because this display mode is new, it does not eclipse previous light looks. More and more functions from the smartphone are also available on the PC. One of them is Windows’ Dark Mode. Some programs bring their own such mode. The high-contrast display is not always pleasing. The variety of operating system modes in Windows is outstanding: With Windows 10, Microsoft started to implement PC presets for various other things besides a high-performance energy-saving mode (already available in Windows 7/8.1). And so, in 2016, with Windows 10 1607 (Anniversary Update) – the feature update for the one-year anniversary of Windows 10 – a Dark Mode moved in. However, the 1607 OS successor Windows 10 1703 (Creators Update) brought the more relevant modes from my point of view: primarily Night Mode, secondarily Game Mode. In the following, I’ll elaborate on why the much-praised Dark Mode isn’t always that great. It exists except in the Windows ecosystem in web services, the latter cloud services I’ll exclude here.

Easy Dark Mode activates dark mode particularly easily

Windows Dark Mode affects the on-board tools Explorer (file manager) and Calculator (calc.exe), among others – it also affects Google Chrome. If you want to try out the Windows 10/11 dark mode, you can activate it in the Settings app of your operating system. You can also deactivate it here. For a quicker activation and deactivation, you can use the free program “Easy Dark Mode“can be used. It is a portable tray tool, so Easy Dark Mode integrates itself into the notification area next to the Windows clock. By the way, this area is called taskbar corner under Windows 11. By clicking on the black and white icon of the helper you can literally turn the light off (Dark Mode on) and on (Dark Mode off). Easy Dark Mode for Windows download

What the Windows Dark Mode does

The Dark Mode paints Explorer windows and other parts of the user interface (Windows shell) in a black robe. Proponents claim that this looks modern and saves power. The whole thing looks modern, yes, but I don’t really like to get used to it in some applications. Take Windows 11, for example: I upgraded to this OS on my main work computer and find Dark Mode, when it affects the taskbar, visually unwelcoming. I like the color black in other situations, but not here. Over time, habituation would certainly set in, but what’s the point of me putting up with that when the friendly bright classic display cuts a fine figure? Especially since the dark mode doesn’t even always save energy: savings only affect the higher-priced OLED displays (Organic Light Emitting Diode), where the pixels themselves are known to glow. For my part, I’m hooked up to an old 24-inch LCD-based TV (a Samsung Syncmaster T24A350), which is connected to the PC and no longer outputs a TV signal, but serves as a computer output device. Despite the analog VGA connection, the periphery subjectively delivers a 1A picture; the visual quality is, however, subterranean with HDMI in my device. According to the motto “Why replace the monitor when it runs well?”, I do not purchase a new screen this time with OLED, where the purchase price would at best only amortize after years due to future electricity savings. In my case, I wouldn’t be able to save money on energy anyway, since I leave Windows’ Dark Mode turned off. The 55 most important programs for your Windows PC

Dark Mode sucks – its displays are only partially good

Underground in every situation a Dark Mode is not. I do use such a mode, but I prefer to use it with a handful of selected programs that use it by default, or where I take the necessary effort to configure it manually. An example of the latter type of application is Mozilla Firefox: The browser’s add-ons manager comes with several themes that include “Dark” and “Firefox Alpenglow” in addition to the default look. Both of the latter packages do not require any extra installation. Depending on the work device, I prefer the light default mode (test notebooks) or the dark mode-like “Dark” theme. Not least because I frequently reinstall Windows on test devices, I save myself the trouble here of hoisting Firefox to the dark side of the Force. Windows’ own Dark Mode always affects several programs at once when activated – you may find that practical, but you don’t have to (like me). In the evening, a dark display of Windows Explorer, for example, may dazzle you less than a white shining display, but for more eye-friendliness I rather use the night mode, which puts color-conscious work on the sidelines, but the disadvantage is not important to me. The feature has been easy on my eyes for years – earlier under Windows 10, currently under Windows 11. The whole thing is handy in the morning in winter, for example, where it is darker in the room and the PC display is more strenuous to look at. The night mode reduces the amount of blue light time-controlled or at the push of a button. This is much more convenient than setting the brightness (another pair of shoes) manually as an alternative: This is not possible on the desktop PC anyway. So you can’t call the Windows Mobility Center here, which can be used to regulate the luminosity on notebooks. Download Easy Dark Mode for Windows If you unlock the Mobility Center via a registry hack, moving the slider in it has no effect. This is different for notebooks, and only here is there also a slider in the power options (powercfg.cpl) of the control panel (control.exe) to regulate the brightness. However, this only works if current drivers are installed, and in my experience only under Windows 7/8.1 – the powercfg.cpl slider is lost in Windows 10/11; I haven’t discovered it there yet. Windows modes: speed, security, power saving, and more Instead of Windows Dark Mode, I use another feature when I want to achieve dark tones. It’s about the Windows window title bars. These can be made a dark/grey tone in the Settings app of the operating system. This looks classy without having white text emblazoned on a black background right away, as is the case with Dark Mode. The latter is a central feature of Dark Mode – I usually prefer to read the other way around like in a magazine: with a white background and black text on it. Windows 8.1 Dark Theme.