file explorer not changing to dark mode in windows 11 dev version

[ghost]

Description
file explorer not chaging to dark mode in windows 11 dev version
I already check not delay problem, all UI already change but only file explorer not chaging at all
updated to auto night mode beta version also same
Expected behavior
only file explorer not chaging, but can change it using windows setting theme section

Log Data
C-Users-zhenj-AppData-Roaming-AutoDarkMode.zip
config and service.zip

Commit Hash and Version

Screenshots

[WindowsTablet]

Same issue here. Also, Taskbar does not change here.

[Spiritreader]

Without providing the full log and config data, we can't really look into it.
Also, since it is a Windows 11 dev build, things may be subject to change or broke

[ghost]

attashed require file, pls check tq

[Spiritreader]

Okay from what I can tell (without actually having access to the win11 dev build) it seems like there is a new registry key for the explorer, or that it doesn't get updated properly if the regkey changes.

Unfortunately we'll have to wait until this becomes an issue in mainstream builds or @Armin2208 checks it out on another Win11 test machine.

[Armin2208]

Confirmed this behaviour on my test machine. Thme switch is now in general really broken. The explorer doesn't switch and the taskbar only changes its theme after opening the startmenu. And even after that the text doesn't adapt, so it gets unreadable.

Because this is a dev build we will not work on a fast fix. We need to watch to further changes of Microsoft, because they seem like to revamp their theme switch mechanic right now. Probably the work has not ended yet. It wouldn't be worth it to push an update for 22557 just to get a different behavior with the next build.

[Spiritreader]

Confirmed this behaviour on my test machine. Thme switch is now in general really broken. The explorer doesn't switch and the taskbar only changes its theme after opening the startmenu. And even after that the text doesn't adapt, so it gets unreadable.

Because this is a dev build we will not work on a fast fix. We need to watch to further changes of Microsoft, because they seem like to revamp their theme switch mechanic right now. Probably the work has not ended yet. It wouldn't be worth it to push an update for 22557 just to get a different behavior with the next build.

Thanks for investigating! Yea I think watching the changes for now is the correct way to deal with this

[Armin2208]

A workaround for now would be to use Windows .Theme-File switch under personalization. So create one theme for dark mode and one theme for light mode in Windows settings. And then let Auto Dark Mode switch them for you :)

[Ir0ngin]

Just to let you know that Microsoft pushed update 22581 into beta status yesterday. The new theme switch mechanism is probably discontinued now.

[chuck00000]

please update this app , the stupid microsoft still don't want to add an option schedule times automatically switch light/dark appearance, light/dark switch didn't normal is very annoying

[wfsg00098]

theme mode still works

[voldemort2826]

It seems like restarting explorer.exe helps, but having to do that manually is kinda defeat the purpose of the program
Btw im using wallpaper switch mode, will test the theme mode as wfsg00098 mentioned.

Edit: theme mode works, but you have to customize it though

[toastytortilla]

Hey guys, thank you so much for this awesome piece of software. Using it has been a blast.

I see that you're (intelligently) waiting until Win11 builds stabilize to do a proper fix, so if anyone is still encountering this specific problem it seems that restarting Explorer from Task Manager fixes the issue. I'm running build 22593 for reference.

[Spiritreader]

Hey guys, thank you so much for this awesome piece of software. Using it has been a blast.

I see that you're (intelligently) waiting until Win11 builds stabilize to do a proper fix, so if anyone is still encountering this specific problem it seems that restarting Explorer from Task Manager fixes the issue. I'm running build 22593 for reference.

@toastytortilla So far, it sadly appears like Microsoft is not intending to make the old theme switch option work again the way it had before for the next stable build.

Auto Dark Mode also supports arbitrary script automation in the latest beta builds, so if you really wanted to use the registry-key based theme switch option at the moment, you could let ADM auto restart your explorer.
See here for more info https://github.com/AutoDarkMode/Windows-Auto-Night-Mode/wiki/How-to-add-custom-scripts

Concerning what we are going to do, tough call. Either disable the older theme switch mechanism as a whole, or introduce >=22593 specific behavior that auto restarts the explorer. None of these are "good" solutions, but we'll have to continue monitoring the situation.

[toastytortilla]

@Spiritreader So I was about to start toying with the registry-key edits when I noticed that the problem seemed like it had solved itself... I'm not sure how. The only thing I changed in ADM was enabling Windows Theme Switch with two different themes. It has completely fixed the taskbar issue (for me, anyway).

[SubjunctiveQuaver]

Awesome! Will there be a fix for this soon?

[Spiritreader]

A workaround for now would be to use Windows .Theme-File switch under personalization. So create one theme for dark mode and one theme for light mode in Windows settings. And then let Auto Dark Mode switch them for you :)

@everyone Registry based theme switch will probably be retired in newer builds. Please use this method from now on.

[SubjunctiveQuaver]

Hmm, but is that possible to combine with the Windows Spotlight feature? You can't save that as a theme from what I've found -- it only saves one particular image. That's the only reason why I'm not already using themes (I was before when I had a fixed background).

[wfsg00098]

maybe this should be done by microsoft 发送自我的盖乐世

…

-------- 原始信息 -------- 发件人： Lawrence Chen ***@***.***> 日期: 2022/4/21 22:00 (GMT+08:00) 收件人： AutoDarkMode/Windows-Auto-Night-Mode ***@***.***> 抄送： 王悄悄 ***@***.***>, Comment ***@***.***> 主题： Re: [AutoDarkMode/Windows-Auto-Night-Mode] file explorer not chaging to dark mode in windows 11 dev version (Issue #424) Hmm, but is that possible to combine with the Windows Spotlight feature? You can't save that as a theme from what I've found -- it only saves one particular image. That's the only reason why I'm not already using themes (I was before when I had a fixed background). ― Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub<#424 (comment)>, or unsubscribe<https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AHSTCXA5UXTIEKOGKWYGADTVGFNNZANCNFSM5O2L2PXA>. You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[Spiritreader]

Hmm, but is that possible to combine with the Windows Spotlight feature? You can't save that as a theme from what I've found -- it only saves one particular image. That's the only reason why I'm not already using themes (I was before when I had a fixed background).

@SubjunctiveQuaver In theory it is still possible to preserve the wallpaper switching functionality. It will come with some drawbacks, because we would have to switch the theme first and then re-apply the wallpapers, or offer a way to rewrite the theme files by using our wallpaper picker (I like this idea)
We will have to investigate how to support this.

Until the next stable version of windows 11 is released, there won't be any changed to Auto Dark Mode though.

[hellodit]

Using switch themes based worked for me

[Spiritreader]

This should be fixed in the latest beta (10.2.0.0), however, please note that the taskbar accent color will remain broken as it is no longer possible to switch it in the latest Win11 builds without using the control panel directl.y

Please test out if all the other inconsistencies are fixed now though.
Thanks!

[chuck00000]

This should be fixed in the latest beta (10.2.0.0), however, please note that the taskbar accent color will remain broken as it is no longer possible to switch it in the latest Win11 builds without using the control panel directl.y

Please test out if all the other inconsistencies are fixed now though. Thanks!

Er, just the theme switch basically, ADMTheme generated.

[Armin2208]

Er, just the theme switch basically, ADMTheme generated.

Yes, this is our Fix for this issue.

[yell0wsuit]

I also have this issue, restarting explorer.exe fixes the problem but you will lose the opened explorer windows. So save them or use other file managers.

Script in scripts.yaml to restart explorer for the time being. Change <your user name here> to your actual PC username, otherwise it won't work.

Enabled: true
Component:
  TimeoutMillis: 10000
  Scripts:
  - Name: cmd example
    Command: cmd
    WorkingDirectory: C:\Users\<your user name here>\AppData\Roaming\AutoDarkMode
    ArgsLight: [/c, taskkill /F /IM explorer.exe & start explorer.exe]
    ArgsDark: [/c, taskkill /F /IM explorer.exe & start explorer.exe]
    AllowedSources: [Any]

[Armin2208]

please update to the newest beta version of Auto Dark Mode and try our fix for Insider Builds. Thx!

[yell0wsuit]

Seem like the latest beta 10.2.0.6 works flawlessly for Insider builds, at least for now. I'm using Beta channel btw.

[ZMYaro]

In the latest Windows 11, in addition to this issue, the Auto Dark Theme window itself only partially changes:

auto_dark_mode_win11.mp4

[Spiritreader]

In the latest Windows 11, in addition to this issue, the Auto Dark Theme window itself only partially changes:

auto_dark_mode_win11.mp4

Need to look into whether the UI framework can be updated. If not, sadly nothing we can do abt it for now.

Theme switching is a lot more broken than humanly imagineable, even MS' own theme panel breaks the styling. So we just have to wait.

[Armin2208]

In the latest Windows 11, in addition to this issue, the Auto Dark Theme window itself only partially changes:

btw you arent joined auto dark mode beta channel to receive the 22h2 fix

[ZMYaro]

Oh, I missed that that fix was out on the beta channel; thanks! It looks like the file explorer issue still happens there, but it does fix some of the other issues!

[Spiritreader]

Oh, I missed that that fix was out on the beta channel; thanks! It looks like the file explorer issue still happens there, but it does fix some of the other issues!

Yeah the explorer issue seems to unfortunately be here to stay for a while until MS fixes it.

[Armin2208]

Microsoft has acknowledged our file explorer issue - kinda

[Spiritreader]

Microsoft has acknowledged our file explorer issue - kinda

Well, one of the issues, but sadly not the one that is causing the most inconsistency. Hopefully that one will get fixed as well at some point.

[GitStudying]

So as @Spiritreader said, it has more to do with windows dev/beta build itself not implementing the change properly than the auto dark mode switching. However, it is not a perfect solution but setting system to accent only inside of 'applications' tab and then accent only > light theme. It still partially switches but at least the text and background are different making them readable.

[drandarov-io]

Just want to confirm that the workaround with the theme switching still works as of build 22621.521 (22H2), because this issue hasn't been updated in a while. I had the same problem with the taskbar not switching or the text being the wrong color.

[BKLTS]

I also have this problem in windows 11 version 2022 H2, Last updated yesterday! @Spiritreader

[BKLTS]

Just want to confirm that the workaround with the theme switching still works as of build 22621.521 (22H2), because this issue hasn't been updated in a while. I had the same problem with the taskbar not switching or the text being the wrong color.

Yes, this method works, but I want to use ADM combine with windows desktop dynamic to change the wallpaper auto for many
times a day. And change the theme can't fit it.

[Spiritreader]

Since 22H2 is out now:

Anything at this point is unfixable by us and a Windows problem.
We will attempt to mitigate if possible, but no guarantees, no ETA.

MS broke it, it's up to them to fix it. We can only do so much at this point unfortunately.

There are a few things we can probably fix (wallpapers not switching correctly), but anything related to half-baked theme switches will remain broken unless MS fixes .theme file switching.

We will release the newest Beta as stable which does have some fixes, the rest is not up to us.

[drandarov-io]

@Spiritreader Is there an issue in the feedback hub? Maybe it'd make sense to consolidate the feedback here and forward people to the feedback hub from here and/or a known issues section in the README.

[Spiritreader]

I think @Armin2208 reported the issues during insider. Maybe he has more info on where to report.
It's a great idea to put up a README.
We'll probably do that as soon as we know the full extent of issues with 22H2 and our 10.2.x releases to avoid that we accidentally declare an ADM bug as Windows issue.

[Spiritreader]

Awesome! Will there be a fix for this soon?

Soon on stable builds is now.

[Spiritreader]

On our end, this is fixed as best as we can.
Any other changes need to be done by Microsoft.

Therefore marking this as closed/completed