Microsoft Windows is the most popular operating system in the world right now. Almost everyone is using a Windows operating system in their PCs. The latest Windows operating system, Windows 10 was released 5 years back and it has been popular ever since among all the PC users.
What is the dark mode and why is it important?
Using a pc or a mobile phone is a regular thing these days. Many people stare at screens for many hours a day. This is bad for our eye health. Especially starting at screens at night is very bad for our eyes and it can make you stay awake at night. This is because bright colors in screens just glow in our eyes and cause eye strain. The simple but efficient solution which was introduced by software publishers to this was the dark mode. A dark theme was introduced to apps and software which contained black color and dark colors. By this looking at screens became easier to eyes. The dark theme is getting huge popularity over all the apps and software. You can activate dark mode in mac OS, iOS, and Android operating systems too.
How to enable dark mode in Windows 10
Applying dark mode to Windows 10 will not make everything on your computer appear dark. It is just a theme and only several Windows apps would be affected. We will explain to you step by step how to activate Windows 10 dark mode for many other apps too.
Apply dark mode for Windows 10 settings and apps
This will affect your system apps such as settings, defender. Most of the apps which come default with Windows 10 will turn dark. Your file explorer will turn dark and the apps like paint also will get dark. If you have downloaded some apps from the Windows store, some of them might turn dark but some of them will not.
1. Open the Start menu and type “Settings”
2. The Settings app will appear on the start menu. Open it.
3. Go to Personalisation Tab.
4. Now in the dialog box, select Colors from the left panel.
5. Go to “Choose your color” setting and set it to Dark.
Now you can do another small trick to make title bars, start, and some taskbars dark in the colors panel.
Below the “Choose your colour” option you will see another option that says “Show accent color on the following surfaces”. In the first checkbox, you will see “Start, taskbar, and action center “second checkbox you will see “title bars”. Check both checkboxes first. Then scroll up to the “Windows colors” panel. Select a dark color (usually in the last two rows)
This will affect the dark color to start bar, taskbar, and title bars of almost all the applications. But the content areas of the applications still be white.
Video Guide on How to Enable Windows 10 Dark Mode
Enable dark mode in common applications
Now we will explain how to enable dark mode in some popular Microsoft and other applications.
Microsoft office
To enable the dark theme in Microsoft Windows,
- First open any office application (word, excel, etc.)
- Click on File on the top menu bar
- Go to options on the Files menu.
- Select the “General’ tab in the options menu.
- Under the “Personalize your copy of Microsoft Windows” section you can select office theme, select ‘Black” and click ok.
This will apply a dark theme to all the Microsoft office applications.
Microsoft Edge:
Microsoft Edge is not the most popular web browser out there but there are a decent amount of users who are using Edge as their web browser. Most of the time now the new edge will use the system default theme. But if you want to make it dark with settings follow the steps below.
- First, open Edge and click the menu button on the toolbar. This is the three-dot icon on the top
- Go to ‘Settings’
- Go to’ Appearance’
- Change the default theme option to ‘Dark’
Enabling a dark theme in some other applications and sites.
Most applications now support the dark theme and dark modes. Almost all web browsers now support the dark theme. And applications like Photoshop and programming IDEs have dark themes. You can search on how to enable a dark theme for each application if you want to activate them.
Popular websites like Facebook, Reddit, and YouTube also support the dark theme. You can go to each website and enable dark mode there. The dark mode on Facebook was introduced to both desktop and mobile versions recently. YouTube also supports dark mode both in desktop mode and in the YouTube app.
Windows high contrast mode
If you want to go even darker in Windows 10 appearance, there is another option. This is called the high contrast mode. This will make your Windows black everywhere possible. But keep in mind that this is not the dark theme and this looks a bit uglier in the appearance. This is made for people with color blindness. This will change how your Windows 10 interface looks completely. You can try this out and keep it that way if you like.
To enable high contrast mode,
- Open start menu
- Type in “Settings”
- Scroll down in the settings menu and select “Ease of access”
- Select ‘High contrast‘ on the left side menu
- Click on “Turn on high contrast”
It will take about two seconds to get the high contrast mode activated. After that, you can customize the high contrast mode. From choosing the theme dropdown select “High contrast black”. Now in the bottom panel, you can change text colors and background colors and some other things. If you are a person who spends all day looking at the computer this mode is really good for you. Though the appearance is a bit different this will have a good effect in your eyes.
Some basic tips to keep your eyes healthy with digital screens.
- Reduce the screen brightness as much as possible.
- Keep an appropriate distance from the screen.
- Reduce using electronics at night.
- Take breaks while you work in the pc for a long time. Do not stare at the screen for more than one hour at a time.