{"id":9496,"date":"2019-05-24T03:24:17","date_gmt":"2019-05-24T03:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/198.58.113.91\/blog\/?p=9496"},"modified":"2019-05-30T10:40:18","modified_gmt":"2019-05-30T10:40:18","slug":"chrome-always-start-light-or-dark-windows-10-app-mode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/chrome-always-start-light-or-dark-windows-10-app-mode\/","title":{"rendered":"Force Chrome to Always start in Light or Dark mode regardless of Windows 10 app mode setting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Google Chrome by default follows or respects your Operating System&#8217;s (e.g., Windows 10) default app mode (Light or Dark). If you enable Dark app mode in Windows 10 Settings \u2192 Personalization \u2192 <strong>Colors<\/strong>, it also enables dark mode or dark theme in Google Chrome.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-9498 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/chrome-dark-or-light-mode.png\" alt=\"Force Chrome to Always start in Light or Dark mode regardless of Windows 10 app mode setting\" width=\"700\" height=\"124\" \/><\/p>\n<p>When you switch to the light mode in the Operating System, Chrome automatically switches to the light theme.<\/p>\n<p>However, regardless of the Windows 10 app mode setting, you can force Google Chrome to always start in light mode or in dark mode. This article tells you how to prevent Google Chrome from respecting or following Windows 10&#8217;s app mode (Light vs Dark) setting. This can be done using additional\/hidden chrome.exe command-line arguments which can be added to Chrome&#8217;s shortcut target field in Properties.<!--more--><\/p>\n<h2>Force Chrome to Always start in Light or Dark mode<\/h2>\n<p>Google Chrome, the latest version is <code>74.0.3729.169<\/code> as of this post, does not yet have a setting or flag in the <code>chrome:\/\/flags<\/code> page to force dark or light mode or theme, like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/edge-chromium-frequently-asked-questions\/#edge_dark_mode\">Edge Chromium has<\/a>. Edge Chromium has the <code>edge:\/\/flags\/#edge-follow-os-theme<\/code> flag that lets you configure whether Edge follows the OS app mode or not.<\/p>\n<p>For Google Chrome, you can use an additional command-line parameter to force Chrome to start in light mode or in dark mode irrespective of your Windows 10&#8217;s app mode setting.<\/p>\n<h3>Force light mode in Chrome<\/h3>\n<p>To force Google Chrome to always use light mode (theme) even if Windows 10 app mode is set to Dark, edit the Chrome shortcut properties and add the switch <code>--disable-features=DarkMode<\/code> and click OK.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-9503 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/chrome-force-light-mode-1.png\" alt=\"Force Chrome to Always start in Light or Dark mode regardless of Windows 10 app mode setting\" width=\"357\" height=\"217\" \/><\/p>\n<p>You&#8217;ll need to close all instances of Google Chrome and reopen in order for the change to take effect. Here is how it looks now.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_9502\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9502\" style=\"width: 690px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-9502 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/chrome-force-light-mode-2.png\" alt=\"Force Chrome to Always start in Light or Dark mode regardless of Windows 10 app mode setting\" width=\"700\" height=\"304\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-9502\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Demo: Chrome running in light mode but Windows 10 is in dark mode.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3>Force dark mode in Chrome<\/h3>\n<p>To force Google Chrome to always use light mode (theme) even if Windows 10 app mode is set to Dark, edit the Chrome shortcut properties and add the switch <code>--force-dark-mode<\/code>\u00a0and click OK.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-9500 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/chrome-force-dark-mode.png\" alt=\"Force Chrome to Always start in Light or Dark mode regardless of Windows 10 app mode setting\" width=\"357\" height=\"217\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Close all instances of Chrome and reopen it. It should default to dark mode even if Windows 10 app mode is set to <strong>Light<\/strong> mode.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_9501\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9501\" style=\"width: 690px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-9501 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/chrome-force-dark-mode-2.png\" alt=\"Force Chrome to Always start in Light or Dark mode regardless of Windows 10 app mode setting\" width=\"700\" height=\"305\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-9501\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Demo: Chrome running in Dark mode but Windows 10 is in Light mode.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Note:<\/strong> When you include additional parameters in the shortcut, make sure there is a leading space so that it&#8217;s separated from the preceding parameter.<\/p>\n<p>For example, the following is incorrect:<\/p>\n<pre>chrome.exe --profile-directory=\"Profile 2\"--force-dark-mode<\/pre>\n<p>This is correct:<\/p>\n<pre>chrome.exe --profile-directory=\"Profile 2\"  --force-dark-mode<\/pre>\n<h3>Registry edit<\/h3>\n<p>The above settings work on per-shortcut basis. But, to make Chrome always start in a particular (light or dark) mode when you double-click an internet shortcut (.url) file or when running chrome.exe directly, use the following registry edit.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Start the Registry Editor (<code>regedit.exe<\/code>)<\/li>\n<li>Go to the following branch:\n<pre>HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\\ChromeHTML\\shell\\open\\command<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n<li>To force Chrome to start in light mode always, double-click (default) and set its data to:\n<pre>\"C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Google\\Chrome\\Application\\chrome.exe\" --disable-features=DarkMode -- \"%1\"<\/pre>\n<p>To force dark mode, use this command-line instead:<\/p>\n<pre>\"C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Google\\Chrome\\Application\\chrome.exe\" --force-dark-mode -- \"%1\"<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n<li>Exit the Registry Editor.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Google Chrome by default follows or respects your Operating System&#8217;s (e.g., Windows 10) default app mode (Light or Dark). If you enable Dark app mode in Windows 10 Settings \u2192 Personalization \u2192 Colors, it also enables dark mode or dark theme in Google Chrome. When you switch to the light mode in the Operating System, &#8230; <a title=\"Force Chrome to Always start in Light or Dark mode regardless of Windows 10 app mode setting\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/chrome-always-start-light-or-dark-windows-10-app-mode\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Force Chrome to Always start in Light or Dark mode regardless of Windows 10 app mode setting\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8],"tags":[241],"class_list":["post-9496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-windows-10","tag-google-chrome"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4935,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/chrome-incognito-light-theme-change-dark\/","url_meta":{"origin":9496,"position":0},"title":"Apply a Light Theme for Chrome Incognito","author":"Ramesh","date":"December 23, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"With the implementation of Material Design in recent desktop versions of Google Chrome, the dark color scheme has been applied for incognito mode. Some users still prefer to have the usual, light theme for incognito mode, but there is no built-in option or chrome:\/\/flags setting for this. Using the Material\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"chrome incognito light theme","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/chrome-incognito-dark.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/chrome-incognito-dark.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/chrome-incognito-dark.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8878,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/edge-chromium-frequently-asked-questions\/","url_meta":{"origin":9496,"position":1},"title":"Edge Chromium ~ FAQ &#038; How-Tos","author":"Ramesh","date":"April 26, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Microsoft decided to discontinue its EdgeHTML proprietary browser engine which was used in the Edge web browser. 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The recent Windows 10 versions come with a new Light Theme (\"Light\" color mode) that displays the Taskbar, Start menu, action center, notification\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Windows 10&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Windows 10","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/windows-10\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"show accent color on taskbar start menu disabled or greyed out","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/taskbar-accent-disabled-2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/taskbar-accent-disabled-2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/taskbar-accent-disabled-2.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":30480,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/kb5020044-bug-task-manager-text-display\/","url_meta":{"origin":9496,"position":3},"title":"Task Manager text unreadable after installing KB5020044","author":"Ramesh","date":"December 2, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"After installing the KB5020044 update for Windows 11, Task Manager might display certain elements in the user interface (UI) in unexpected colors. 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When you launch Chrome, the Task Manager may show chrome.exe as running but no user interface may be visible. 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You can launch Chrome's incognito mode from an existing Chrome window by pressing Ctrl + Shift + N. 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