Dark Mode broken in File Explorer: top stays white

Hey T0SNIC,

since I encountered inconsistencies with the dark mode in my file explorer I'm going to share the solution that worked for me in hopes of helping you with your issue:

Press Windows key+R to open Run then paste the following to open the old Personalization.

shell:::{ED834ED6-4B5A-4bfe-8F11-A626DCB6A921}

Press Enter
Under Windows default, select Windows or Windows (light)
Switch back to Dark theme

Let me know if it worked!

I've been having a very similar problem for months. It affects not just my explorer settings, though, but any application that "automatically" selects light/dark mode based on system settings.

When I choose a custom theme (wallpapers, edge colours, dark mode, etc.) the system will switch over, and when I start up again (either from sleep or full restart) the system will show the previous settings while the running applications are spinning up, but will inevitably default the colour mode settings. The wallpapers and window border colours remain, but opening "Personalization" shows that I'm not using a theme at all. Selecting a theme will bring the settings back, but literally every time I start the computer I have to open Personalization and select a theme.

If any windows are open when I do this they are unaffected, unless they are restarted, or I select themes repeatedly.

It's annoying as hell, and I haven't found any solution to this. I note that, because half of the settings apparently *do* remember that I wand the Dark theme, all text is in white, so when there are multiple tabs open, everything except the tab I'm currently on is illegible:

Thank you for sharing your solution =)

I will make sure to test it if I ever get crazy enough to update Windows 11 ever again.

Unfortunately, a subsequent update recently almost killed my file explorer altogether and I had to perform an "in-place upgrade" in order to roll back the update. Now I am back to a version of Windows 11 that does not even have the white File Explorer window glitch.

I tried a few things to disable Windows Updates completely, which has been working for a few days now. The discussion is here.

Hi.

1. I updated Windows yesterday. Therefore I came to the conclusion that MS does not want to fix the issue.
2. I am currently on version 22H2 Build 22621.2861
3. The only beautification software I have is "StartAllBack", which I deactivated as written before.
4. I tried another, unmodified account, too.

EDIT:

• As an extra test, I updated my Win11 virtual machine (VM) to version 22H2 Build 22621.2861. It does not have the same issue as my bare-metal Win11. I installed StartAllBack on the VM and changed its settings to the same as my bare-metal Win11. The explorer still looks like it should in the VM.
• I also uninstalled the StartAllBack software to 100% confirm that this software is not the culprit.

Hi, T0SNIC

Welcome to the MicroSoft Community.

I saw your feedback link and voted for you. For feedback, please share the link with people around you after submitting your feedback again, more votes will increase the priority of the issue being addressed. I see that you have made a lot of efforts to solve this problem, and I have a few doubts and thoughts on this issue: 

1. May I ask if you haven't updated the OS since you discovered the problem two months ago, or have you updated it but the problem still exists? 

2. Can you provide me with the version number of your system? I think you can confirm whether your problem is a known version issue based on the version number. 

3. The in-place update didn't solve your problem, I'm wondering if there is a third-party beautification tool in your computer (modify wallpaper, beautify taskbar, window pattern, cursor shape, etc.) that affects the normal operation of your dark mode, if there is one, please try to uninstall it to see if the problem still occurs. 

4. I think you can try to create a new local account to see if the dark mode feature still doesn't work. You can refer to the link below to create a local account: 

[Create a local user or administrator account in Windows - Microsoft Support](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/create-a-local-user-or-administrator-account-in-windows-20de74e0-ac7f-3502-a866-32915af2a34d#WindowsVersion=Windows_11 "support.microsoft.com")

I hope you can respond to the ideas mentioned above. I would appreciate it if you could sync me with more information. If the ideas mentioned above don't help you, please let me know in your next reply and I'll provide you with other solution ideas. Thank you in advance for your support and cooperation.

Best Regards

Martin | Microsoft Community Support Specialist