How to Use Dark Theme in Microsoft Edge?

The old Edge version from Microsoft had an option to use dark mode in the settings. The new Chromium based Edge browser has different settings and also has an option to follow the system theme mode. If you are really interested in working with partial or complete dark mode in Edge, here are the available ways for you.

Partial and Complete Dark Modes in Edge

Below is how Edge browser looks in complete light mode.

In partial dark mode, you will see the dark color only on the tab, new tab page and in Edge settings page. However, the content area of websites will not follow the dark color and uses the site’s background instead as shown below. In addition, the title color follows the accent’s color (blue in the below picture) from Windows settings.

When you force complete dark mode, Edge will ignore the site’s background color and force the sites to use black background. The text colors will be inverted to white to make the page readable. However, it may not work properly when the site uses custom colors for heading and paragraphs. So, you need to check the readability when forcing Edge to use dark mode.

Change Accent Color to Automatic

As mentioned, if you have setup accent’s color then the title bar will always show in that color. So, first make sure to disable the accent color following the below instructions in Windows 11. Check out this article on changing accents colors in Windows 10.

• Press Windows Logo and I keys to open Settings app.
• Go to “Personalization > Colors” section.
• Scroll down to the bottom of “Accent color” heading and disable “Show accent color on title bars and windows borders” option.

Now, you can try one of the below options to use either partial or complete dark mode in Edge.

1. Apply Dark Mode from Edge Settings (Partial)

• Open Edge and go to edge://settings/appearance settings page.
• Under “Overall appearance” heading, select “Dark” option.
• This will force Edge to use partial dark mode regardless of system’s theme. Though the settings page looks complete dark, website’s content area will still look in white or different color.

2. Change Windows to Dark Mode (Partial)

If you want all the apps in Windows 11 to follow the system’s settings, then first select “System default” in edge://settings/appearance section.

• After that, press Windows Logo and I keys to open Windows Settings app.
• Go to “Personalization > Colors” section.
• Select “Dark” from the dropdown against “Choose your mode” option.

If you are using Windows 10 or Mac, then check how to change dark mode in Windows 10 and macOS.

3. Always Launch Edge in Dark Mode (Partial)

It is also possible to launch Edge always in dark mode regardless of system or Edge settings.

• First, you need to create desktop shortcut for the Edge app if it is not already available on your system. You can find the Edge app msedge.exe in the location C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application\. Copy paste this path in your File Explorer’s address bar and press enter to go to that folder. Drag and drop the msedge.exe file to your desktop and it will create a desktop shortcut for Edge.

• Now, right-click on the desktop shortcut and select “Properties” menu. Alternatively, select the desktop shortcut and press “Alt + Enter” keys to open the properties dialog box.

• In the “Target” text box under “shortcut” tab, add -force-dark-mode at the end. The complete target location should be like “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application\msedge.exe” -force-dark-mode as shown below.

• Click “Apply” button and you may be prompted to provide administrator permission. If prompted, click “Continue” if you are already an administrator or login with admin access to do this action.

• Close Edge app and double-click the desktop shortcut to relaunch. You will see the Edge opens in partial dark mode as shown below.

4. Force Edge to Use Dark Mode (Complete)

The last option is to force Edge to use dark mode for all the websites including the content area.

• Open Edge and go to edge://flags/ page.
• Type “dark” in the search box and find “Auto Dark Mode for Web Contents” flag. This flag is also available for Mac, Linux and Android. So, you can use this on those platforms as well.

• Click on the “Default” dropdown against the flag and select “Enabled” option. You will be prompted to relaunch the browser, make sure to save your work and click “Relaunch” button.

• Edge will relaunch and you will see everything is showing in dark mode.

Note that flags are experimental features in Edge which means they may be removed any time.

Final Words

As you can see there are lot of ways to use dark theme in Microsoft Edge browser. However, if the website does not offer dark mode, it is not a good idea forcing Edge using flag. You can follow any of the other methods to use partial dark theme without affecting the reading experience.