Put new laptop into dark mode and can't seem to get back to light mode

I had never tried dark mode before and thought I might like it. I'm not sure I like it, and want to go back to light mode to compare it. I have gone around and around in circles and am not getting anywhere. I go to Settings,Personalization,Colors, Choose Your Mode, Custom,Choose your default windows mode, light, Choose your default apps mode, light , and close settings and all backgrounds are still dark. The top bars of the screen and the bottom taskbar is light, but all of the working screens are dark with white letters when I type. I use Google as my browser. I expect I'm missing something simple but can't seem to find it.

Thanks for your help

Rob

Try selecting Light mode instead of custom.

I tried that first and it didn't do anything so I tried the custom and it didn't work either.
Thanks for you reply.
Rob

Did you try restarting after you made the changes

Hello Rob, and welcome.

You can try a different option below to see if may set it back to light mode.


Do note some apps have their own theme settings that override what you set above.

Hi Brink,
Thanks for replying. I tried options 2 & 3 to try to get the windows screens and app screens back to light but it doesn't seem to have worked. At the end of the steps in both option 2 and option 3 it said it had successfully changed the registry.
I looked at Ebay and my Comcast emails and they are both were still in the dark mode. ( I wasn't able to determine if Ebay and Comcast somehow mimic what windows is doing, and have to be changed back to light mode in their programs but I doubt that is the issue.)
I didn't try the options that use the " Power Shell". I have never heard of Power Shell before. It's interesting to me that a detailed description of using registry entries to change the light and dark modes even exists. It makes me wonder if this is a problem that windows 11 users have been experiencing that isn't straight forward to fix. I am brand new to Windows 11 so I don't know anything about it.

Rob

Rob, try this to see if you can 'jar' it loose.


Go to settings>personalization>colors. Choose an accent color. Check "show accent color on start and taskbar'. If it is grayed out, it is because Windows has to be in dark mode for it to be available. Here's a workaround to use it in light mode.

go to settings-personalization- colors.
under 'choose your mode', change it to dark mode (this is temporary and it un-grays the option.)
Change 'show accent color on start and taskbar' to ON and change 'show accent color on title bar and windows borders' to ON.
scroll back up to 'choose your mode' change it to CUSTOM
set 'choose your windows default mode' to DARK
set 'choose your app mode' to LIGHT

Hi glasskuter, I tried everything you suggested. It didn't seem to change anything. 'show accent color on start and taskbar' was grayed out until I switched 'choose your mode' to dark as you suggested.
Thanks

Rob

Just musing here, but could it be as simple as you have selected a dark theme? Settings>system>personalization>themes. Also, within whatever browser you are using there are light/dark settings as well. In Edge it is under three dots in upper right corner> settings> appearance. Other browsers have similar settings. You have to restart browser for changes to take effect.

I think you might be right glasskuter. I think maybe I am overwhelmed with all of the new terms and possiblities there are in configuring Windows 11. I may have made a change somewhere, just in passing, and didn't realize I was messing things up.
I think maybe I need to just live with the dark mode until I learn more, and at some point I will realize what's going on.

Is there anyway that I could put the computer back to new condition without disturbing all the applications I have put on the computer so far , such as Word, Chrome, etc?

You can use system reset and keep your files but not applications you installed. You can also reset and remove everything to make it like it came out of the box.
Settings>system>Recovery
If you’ve encrypted your device, you’ll need your BitLocker key to reset your PC. If you don’t know your BitLocker key, see Find my BitLocker recovery key.

Recovery options explained in detail here.

I strongly suggest once you get everything set up to your satisfaction that you use some sort of ongoing backup solution to image your system so that you can recover your system in the future in case of software or hardware failure or user mishap.

Thanks for your help and the others that have commented.
It seems like all of this has gotten way over my head. If I tried to set up an ongoing backup to recover my system I'm afraid it would just lead to more confusion than I'm capable of sorting out. Its kind of like a double edged sword. The only way to learn about computers is to mess with them, but messing with them can also get you in trouble real quick. Life is getting more complicated as technology advances. I don't know what the answer is, just go with the flow and try to enjoy the ride I guess.

Rob

Also even web pages can have their own theme settings independently of system or browser settings.

Hi Rob. I had almost the identical experience of yourself. The only difference was that my browser is Firefox. After trying what seemed every avenue of approach to its resolution, by chance I decided to check what add-ons and extensions within Firefox, that I'd previously added. It was then, only by chance, that I discovered I had sometime in the past couple of weeks, added a "Dark Mode" extension , mistakenly during my process of ensuring I had the right Firefox add-ons and extensions for my new system. After removing it, and restarting, everything returned to normal. Problem solved! Hope this helps you.