Windows 11's latest insider builds conceal clandestine File Explorer dark mode option
In a significant move towards enhancing the user experience, Microsoft has rolled out a new feature in the latest Windows 11 Insider Beta and Dev builds. Users can now access dark mode File Explorer dialog boxes, making the overall dark mode experience more consistent and less jarring.
To enable and see the new dark mode File Explorer dialog boxes, users need to be running a supported Insider build, specifically build 26120.5751 (Beta channel) or build 26200.5751 (Dev channel) or later, released around mid-August 2025. After updating to one of these builds, users should enable system-wide dark mode by navigating to Settings > Personalization > Colors and selecting Dark under "Choose your mode".
Once these steps are completed, legacy File Explorer dialogs such as file operation progress bars (copy, move, delete), confirmation dialogs (file deletion, rename conflicts, folder merges), and other file operation-related dialogs will display in dark mode, matching the system theme.
However, it's important to note that not all buttons in the File Explorer dialog boxes have been updated to dark mode. For instance, the "Folder Access Denied" dialog box still features gray Continue and Skip buttons. In other "Folder Access Denied" dialog boxes, the Try Again and Cancel buttons may be dark, as they should be.
Other windows, such as the Run dialog box and the Control Panel, continue to be the wrong colour for dark mode. Microsoft is still working on the dialog boxes for File Explorer, and it is expected that the dark versions will roll out to everyone eventually.
To test the build, users can download an ISO file from UUP dump and install it in a virtual machine using tools like Oracle VirtualBox or VMware Workstation Pro. For those who haven't activated their Windows, a registry hack might be needed to force dark mode, but normally just enabling dark mode in the settings suffices.
To enable the new File Explorer dialog box dark mode using ViveTool, a free utility, users need to download and unzip it to a folder on the C drive, launch a phantomofear window as admin, navigate to the folder, and enter the command to enable the feature. The new File Explorer dialog boxes are disabled by default and require the use of ViveTool.
For users who wish to enable dark mode in Windows 11 without activation, they can navigate to the Registry and set AppsUseLightTheme and SystemUsesLightTheme to 0, then reboot.
This feature addresses long-standing dark mode inconsistencies where those dialogs previously appeared with a bright white background. The dark mode dialogs are currently being tested and rolled out in Beta and Dev Insider channels and are expected to become more widely available in upcoming Windows updates.
[1] Source: TechRadar [3] Source: Windows Central [4] Source: Windows Latest [5] Source: Neowin
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