HANDS ON Even when you have dark mode enabled in Windows 11, some important dialog boxes stay white. But that could be changing, if a new, hidden beta feature becomes widely available.

A lot of users prefer dark mode because they find the light text on a black background to be easier on the eyes. Having white dialog boxes after choosing dark mode is like having someone suddenly turn on all the overhead lights at the nightclub. It also shows how Microsoft, even four years after Windows 11's launch, still hasn't gotten some of the UI basics correct.

In the latest Windows 11 Insider Beta and Dev builds, you can enable File Explorer dialog boxes to show up in dark mode, something that does not work in the production OS today. The overall File Explorer window turns black in dark mode, but its children do not.

[1]

Windows File Explorer with new dark dialog boxes - Click to enlarge

Prior to this change, if you copied some files and were looking at the green progress bar, it would appear on a white background. Ditto for the pop-ups that appear to ask you if you really want to delete a file or to warn you that you don't have admin rights to rename or delete a folder.

[2]

Windows File Explorer today has light dialog boxes even in dark mode - Click to enlarge

X user phantomofearth, who finds unactivated features in the latest Windows Insider builds, first [3]found and documented the new Explorer dialogs, which are disabled by default, even with dark mode on. To see them, you must use ViveTool, a free utility that allows you to enable hidden features that Microsoft has put into the OS, but hasn't turned on or has only turned on for some users.

How to see the new File Explorer dialog box dark mode

To enable File Explorer dark mode dialog boxes, first make sure that you are running on a Windows Insider build that's in the Beta or Dev channels. These should be build numbers 26120.5751 for Beta or 26200.5751 for Dev, both of which were released on August 15, 2025. If you're reading this article in a few weeks, newer builds may also have this feature.

If you're not already a Windows Insider, you can join the Insider program and pick your channel by going to Settings->Windows Update->Windows Insider Program and clicking the "Get started" button. Or, you can do what I did, and download an ISO file of either build from [4]UUP dump , a site which makes it easy to get any Windows build past or present. You can then test the build by installing it in a virtual machine, using a tool such as [5]Oracle VirtualBox or [6]VMware Workstation Pro ; I found that the latter offered better performance.

[7]

After you've installed Windows, enable dark mode. You can do this by navigating to Settings->Personalization->Colors and selecting Dark from the Choose your mode menu.

[8]

Enabling dark mode in Windows 11 Settings - Click to enlarge

If your Windows isn't activated, you can use a Registry hack to enable dark mode. Just navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Personalize

Then set AppsUseLightTheme and SystemUsesLightTheme to 0. Reboot.

After you're in dark mode, [9]download the ViveTool and unzip it to a folder on your C drive. I put mine in C:\vive. Launch a phantomofear window as admin and navigate to that folder. cd C:\vive

Then enter the following command to enable the feature vivetool /enable /id:57857165,57994323,48433719,49453572

After you've enabled those four feature IDs in ViveTool, reboot your PC. Now launch File Explorer and try doing some file copies, deletes, and renames.

[10]Microsoft keeps adding stuff into Windows we don't want – here's what we actually need

[11]Voice, vision, pen: Oh dear. Windows boss says Microsoft is again reshaping OS

[12]Make Redmond angry by setting up Windows 11 with a local account

[13]If you're forced to use Windows 11, here's how to steal some of your time back

You'll notice that all the child dialog boxes that File Explorer spawns now have dark backgrounds. However, some of the buttons in the dialog boxes may still be gray. For example, when I tried to rename the SystemResources folder, I got a "Folder Access Denied" dialog where the buttons for Continue and Skip were both the wrong color.

[14]

Folder access denied dialog box still has gray buttons, even in the new dark mode - Click to enlarge

However, when I tried to delete the System32 folder, I got a different Access Denied dialog box where the Try Again and Cancel buttons were dark, like they should be.

[15]

Another Folder Access Denied dialog had the correct button colors - Click to enlarge

Clearly, Microsoft is still working on the dialog boxes for File Explorer, but we expect to see the dark versions roll out to everyone eventually. Meanwhile, other windows, such as the Run dialog box and the Control Panel, continue to be the wrong color for dark mode. ®

Get our [16]Tech Resources



[1] https://regmedia.co.uk/2025/08/19/dark1.jpg

[2] https://regmedia.co.uk/2025/08/19/dark2.jpg

[3] https://x.com/phantomofearth/status/1956383744975114507

[4] https://uupdump.net

[5] https://www.virtualbox.org/

[6] https://www.vmware.com/products/desktop-hypervisor/workstation-and-fusion

[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aKTz9YKBSEbwgfM-heDPkgAAAQQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

[8] https://regmedia.co.uk/2025/08/19/dark3.jpg

[9] https://github.com/thebookisclosed/ViVe/releases

[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/16/microsoft_windows_features_help_productivity/

[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/14/microsofts_windows_revision_comment_opinion/

[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/05/set_up_windows11_local_account/

[13] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/21/windows_11_productivity_sink/

[14] https://regmedia.co.uk/2025/08/19/dark4.png

[15] https://regmedia.co.uk/2025/08/19/dark5.jpg

[16] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/