- Windows 11 Dark Mode Now Covers More Items in File Explorer
- However, a new feature to automatically switch between light and dark modes with PowerToys is seriously buggy.
- It is accidentally enabled and apparently switches modes randomly for some users, but Microsoft has some fixes almost ready.
As sometimes happens with Windows 11, Microsoft gives with one hand and takes with the other, since while progress is made in finishing the dark mode, this functionality has taken a really irritating turn for some users.
Let’s start with the good news, which is that in a new preview on the Dev channel (build 26220.6972), Microsoft has made sure that dark mode covers more than what you see in File Explorer.
This is the app that controls folders on your Windows 11 desktop, and now Dark Mode will also be applied to panels that contain folder options (the General, View, and Search tabs).
Now for the bad news, although there is some (sort of) good news about the bad news, as it only affects those with Windows 11 using PowerToys. This is a useful set of tools that not everyone uses on Windows by any means, as it’s more for advanced users (as the name implies), although there are tricks within PowerToys that are definitely worth having, whatever your level.
One of the newest incoming features is called Light Switch and offers the ability for dark and light themes to automatically switch based on the time of day, something Mac users are very familiar with and is a neat touch.
However, as Windows Latest reports, there are bugs in the latest version of PowerToys (v0.95) where this functionality was implemented. Light Switch crashes badly, apparently switching between light and dark modes quite randomly (among other issues, such as its settings constantly resetting).
One affected user complained: “The color mode of my Windows theme was forcibly changing every 30 seconds. It took me almost an hour to fix the problem and I even suspected that a Windows component was not working properly.”
The feature has also been mistakenly enabled by default, as Microsoft admits in a post on GitHub: “We never intended for the light switch to be enabled by default; this is actually a bug and we are working to fix it as soon as possible.”
It looks like Microsoft now has some hotfixes deployed and under review, so hopefully these issues will be resolved soon enough.
There’s one more annoyance, and not an accidental one either, in the new Windows 11 preview that includes dark mode, and it’s a new annoyance in the Start menu.
Microsoft has inserted a link to “See my benefits” in the Microsoft account control panel that appears in the Start menu, sending you to a website that explains what you get from any subscription you have active. (And what you might get, of course, if you haven’t signed up for OneDrive or Microsoft 365 and the like.)
Analysis: scratched disc and broken light switch
Thus, Microsoft is once again promoting its services and subscriptions in Windows 11, although to a lesser extent in the Start menu in this case; the link is small and relatively discreet. Still, I prefer not to have these types of thinly veiled ads in the interface, and I’m not alone there. Microsoft accounts seem to be something the software giant is very keen to promote these days, not to mention removing workarounds to avoid having one of these accounts when setting up Windows 11.
As for the dark mode improvements in Windows 11, they follow other recent testing work to apply dark mode to various other parts of File Explorer, including panels that appear during file operations (copy or delete, for example), as well as error pop-ups. All of this, and now the folder options, display correctly with a dark background, instead of reverting to a light background when you’re in dark mode.
Microsoft certainly seems to be picking up the pace in terms of ending dark mode, which is good to see; although, as I said before, I still wonder why it has taken so long to address this, given that it doesn’t seem like a very complex task. (Of course, there may be thorny issues under the hood with dark mode, and Microsoft has made that excuse before regarding seemingly simple interface changes, particularly features that weren’t carried over from Windows 10.)
The PowerToys bug sounds like a very frustrating bug, but as noted, there are a set of fixes that are now being reviewed, so hopefully these issues will be fixed soon, including any erratic behavior and the light switch being mistakenly activated by default.
If you’re still encountering dark mode-related oddities with PowerToys and want to manually check if the light switch is enabled, head over to PowerToys > System Toolswhere you will find the ‘light switch‘ slider: Make sure it is disabled.
