Forum Discussion
Dark mode -- ok for a first step
Is there any way to enable dark mode without enabling it in windows? I had to turn off dark mode after using it for years because 1809 forces it on File Explorer with no option to turn it off :(
james_edge
Hi James,
Short answer, no. The OS Dark has to be on to have Dark in Edge C. And, right now*, there is no 'splitting' where Dark is applied. *I say, right now, because, that is changing soon. 1903 has Light, Dark and Custom
Cheers,
Drew
That's sad to hear, especially as Windows 10 Mail has had the on/off/system toggle for years. It's good that MS seem to be attempting to address the issue in 1903 however from your screenshot it looks like they're going to miss the mark completely, the toggle needs to be per app not just an apps/windows split :(
- IrinaL
Microsoft
NicolSD tomscharbach Drew1903 james_edge
Thanks so much for the detailed feedback on our first step towards full support for dark mode, our team appreciates it!
Would love to dig in a bit more and hear your thoughts on the following:
- Why do you use dark mode? How does it help you when using the browser or browing the web?
- What would your ideal dark mode experience look like? Would it look more like Edge Classic, Edge Chromium, or something completely different?
- What would a "consistent" dark mode in Edge mean to you?
Thanks!
Irina
Here are my opinions:
- Why do you use dark mode? How does it help you when using the browser or browsing the web?
I believe we have a consensus across the board. It is easier on the eyes.
How does it help you when using the browser or browsing the web?
It doesn't scream "look at me." It is a nice, quiet, more subdued way of sorting where to look at the time it's needed. If I need to look at the controls, I look at the dark stuff. If I want to look at the web page, it's easy to ignore the dark stuff.
- What would your ideal dark mode experience look like? Would it look more like Edge Classic, Edge Chromium, or something completely different?
To me, the Edge Classic team did the best job so far to create a Dark Mode that could be used across the board. Just look at the tabs used by Edge Chromium compared to the regular Edge. Look at the screenshots below. Edge Chromium has this horrible gap on the left corner and on top. Edge Classic had no gaps.
- What would a "consistent" dark mode in Edge mean to you?
To me, consistency could be achieved by getting all apps to use the same Dark mode look (that includes the top bar. If I choose Dark Mode in Windows settings, all apps that use dark mode should share the same look. Yes today, you can go to Windows' Settings/Personalization/Colours" and turn on Dark Mode throughout the system. But the problem is that the Windows accent colours can still be changed even if you are in Dark Mode. Here are a few examples of "Dark Mode."
Here is the palette in Windows' Settings/Personalization/Colours. People should not have access to it if they pick Dark or Light Mode.
Dark Mode should be one design and one set of colours. To me, it seems like every development team at Microsoft came up with its own version of Dark Mode. Just look at File Explorer. It's the ugliest one of the bunch. Please come up with one way to display Dark mode and stick with it across the board. My personal favourite is Edge Classic.
