Microsoft’s Windows Dark Mode Has Remained Frustratingly Incomplete for Almost a Decade

Back in the summer of 2016, Microsoft rolled out its first major feature update for Windows 10, bringing users a fresh toggle for switching their apps between light and dark themes. It was a welcome feature, even though back then, many apps and some core interfaces didn’t immediately support it.

Fast forward a bit, and now a lot of apps on Windows can adjust their themes based on this system toggle. But, the default Windows UI? Well, that’s where progress has stalled quite a bit since the introduction of dark mode.

When Windows 10 first launched in 2015, its design was a bit of a mishmash—some elements were dark, like the Taskbar, Start Menu, and Action Center, while others like File Explorer and the context menus were light. Microsoft’s update in 2016 tried to fix this by adding a dark mode toggle for those lighter elements.

This change was superficial at best. Yes, File Explorer and context menus got the dark theme, but so many areas of the UI still didn’t support it. Whether you were viewing copy dialogs, file properties, using Run commands, navigating the Registry Editor, or tinkering with Control Panel applets, you’d be stuck with glaring white.

A decade in, and we’re still seeing these parts of Windows sticking to light mode despite dark mode’s presence. Even Windows 11, with all its updates, will often jarringly flash a bright dialog when you’re copying a large file or checking file properties. And given how frequently we encounter these areas, this is no minor annoyance!

And it’s not just incomplete—sometimes dark mode is straight up glitchy. Really, take a look at this interface you can access right from the Start menu in the most recent Windows 11 version.

The crazy part? Microsoft apparently started working on completing dark mode during the early development stages of Windows 11, around 2020/2021. Those insider builds showed progress on extending dark mode to these older interfaces, but for some unexplained reason, it never went fully live.

If you look at competitors like macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and Android, they offer a comprehensive dark mode experience. Once it’s turned on, it’s rare to hit an unthemed patch. But on Windows 11, hitting such blind spots is a regular bother, and it seems to go unnoticed by Microsoft.

Adding to the frustration, in 2018, Microsoft introduced a dedicated light theme for Windows 10, making it the default to perhaps cover up the gaps in their dark mode approach. Why they don’t dedicate resources to fully implement dark mode baffles me. It just ends up looking unprofessional, and frankly, it’s a disruption when I’m working late and some harsh light-themed window suddenly pops open.

To clarify, this problem is solely on Microsoft’s plate. All the third-party apps I regularly use—Telegram, Slack, WhatsApp, even Office—are well on board with dark mode. It’s just Windows itself that fails to fully embrace its own feature, and it’s downright exasperating.

I had a bit of hope that a leadership change within Windows might lead to a focus on refining the interface and finally finishing what they started with dark mode. Sadly, it seems like we’ll be waiting a while longer for that to happen.