Win 11 ( 22621.160) - Dark mode - Explorer has a white toolbar - how to fix?

[Ant665321]

Hi all, can anyone help me get rid entirely (or turn dark) the old style white toolbar that is showing up in my explorer windows

I have already set the bar to locked as per https://www.reddit.com/r/WindowsHelp/comments/q4d7so/windows_11_white_bar_in_file_explorer_has_retur...

Thanks in advance

[#2 · Accepted solution]

@Ant665321 

I had the same problem and was able to fix it by going to the triple dot in the file explorer bar

then options -> view tab -> uncheck "Always show menus"  (It was the second from the top for me)

I also  did the registry edit in the other post, but it didn't have any effect. Not not sure if its doing something in combination with this, however.

[#3]

That fixed it, many thanks.

[#4]

@Ant665321 

Me too having inconsistencies in the dark-theme since latest (Explorer with tabs) update, any thoughts? When I first start my pc it comes in all white with black toolbar and when I click something (eg. a drive) it partially restores the dark theme. This is driving me nuts as a dark-theme daily-driver, the white patches just kills the purpose.

[#5]

i did it, but the white toolbar is still there

[#6]

@Ant665321 

Hello, currently I still have the same issue. Have you found the solution? Toggling always show menus don't work for me. 

[#7]

I'm having the exact same issue. Got any luck dealing with it?

[#8]

I fixed it by going to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

And deleting "AlwaysShowMenus", or set to zero.

[#9]

@careca777 Mine is already set to 0 but I still have the white bar problem :(

[#10]

@Dragonporn 

I would suggest deleting the entry and reboot, because it seems like the entry is not even in windows 11, at least in mine it wasn't. Deleting worked for me, and the entry did not come back after reboot. I introduced that entry on my win11 when i imported a personalized registry file that came from a windows 10 customization. 

[#11]

I too had this entry set to 1 in the registry, even though I installed Windows 11 from scratch so didn't have it introduced from an import. Regardless, I have deleted the entry and so far so good. Time will tell if it comes back and update if it does.

[#12]

I don't have that entry either but still randomly getting the white bar :(

[#13]

@Dragonpornit's been over a week, the longest stretch I ever had, and the bar has not returned. It certainly appears that this entry is leftover from before they reskinned and dark modded explorer and no longer applies. So it is strange and quite a bummer in your case. I suppose you could always try a clean install to see if junk is cleaned up (mine WAS a clean install and still had the setting, but when removed worked)