If you spend a lot of time in front of the Windows screen computer you, you probably end up every night with eyes tired from your screen. Fortunately, there are a few settings in Windows 10 that allow you to mitigate the effects of screen light on your eyes, and one of those settings is Dark Mode.
What is Dark Mode in Windows 10?
The dark mode function, (which has nothing to do with Night Light which simply adds a warm red tint to your screen), allows you to choose a dark background in some Windows 10 apps. It can and does only affect specific Windows 10 apps, such as the Settings window and the Microsoft Store. Some other apps and programs, including File Explorer and Microsoft's Edge browser, are not affected by dark mode.
To manually activate the dark mode and see how it is, you can go to Settings> Personalization> Colors and under "Select default application mode", select "Dark".
But what if you only want dark mode at night and don't want to do this manually every day? The good news is that you can automate this simply by using the built-in scheduler work of Windows 10.
How to automatically activate dark mode at night
1. In the Windows 10 search bar, type Task Scheduler and open the program.
2. In the Task Schedule menu, click Action> Create Basic Task.
3. In the “Create Basic Task Wizard” window that appears, type a name for the task (such as Enable Dark Mode) and click button Next.
4. In the next question "When do you want your work to start?", Select "Daily" and click Next.
5. Leave the start date as it is. fill in the time you want to activate the dark mode function and click the Next button. If you have a laptop and travel with it, make sure you select "Time Zone Sync".
6. In the question "What action do you want your task to perform" select "Start Program" and click Next.
7. In the "Program / Script" field, type Reg. In the "Add Names (Optional)" field, copy and paste the following and click Next:
add HKCU \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Themes \ Personalize \ v AppsUseLightTheme / t REG_DWORD / d 0 / f
8. Click the Finish button.
If your computer is turned off at the time you choose to make the change, Dark mode will not be turned on unless you do the following. Right-click on the new task and select "Properties".
In the dialog that will open, go to the Settings tab and select "Run as soon as possible after skipping" and press the OK button. This way the task will be performed as soon as you turn on your computer and so the dark mode will run.
You can review the settings for each task in the Task Schedule by opening the Task Schedule and then clicking the Task Schedule Library, then finding the task you want to edit (listed in alphabetical order) and right-clicking on it, selecting from the Settings tab.
How to turn off the dark mode automatically during the day
This step is necessary if you want your computer to switch between two modes of operation. With the first task your computer goes into Dark mode every certain time at night but to go back to normal daytime mode you have to schedule it as well. This is done by creating a second task, doing the same steps above with the difference that in Step 3 you should give a different name to the new task (say “Activate Light mode”), in Step 5 choose the time in the morning that you want to enable light mode.
Also, in Step 7, in the Program / Script field, type Reg. In the Add Arguments field (optional), copy and paste the following and click Next:
add HKCU \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Themes \ Personalize \ v AppsUseLightTheme / t REG_DWORD / d 1 / f
Then follow the remaining steps of the first example.
How to edit or delete jobs
If you change your mind and decide that you no longer want to activate dark mode automatically or want to make changes to settings such as activation time, open the Task Scheduler and click on the "Task Schedule Library". After selecting the task you want, right-click on it and select, disable, properties or delete, depending on what you want to do. You can even check "Run" to activate the feature immediately.
