A simple and lightweight notification icon to toggle Windows theming between light mode and dark mode.
Go to the latest release here:
Download the release-x.x.x.x.tar:
Extract the release (any program works - you can download WinRar here or 7-Zip here):
Once inside the extracted release folder, double click on the RUN_ME.bat and install:
The installer may redirect you to install the .NET runtime - you will need to install it (developers: if you install the .NET SDK, the runtime comes bundled):
If you had to install the runtime, once it is installed, double click on the RUN_ME.bat and complete installation.
And that's it! Nightlight should now be installed on your computer:
If you don't immediately see it in your system/notification tray, check to see if it is hidden:
You can now delete the release files (Nightlight has been installed and does not rely on these anymore):
Left click on the Nightlight icon to toggle between light and dark mode.
Right click on the Nightlight icon to bring up the context menu.
By default, only the "Apps, Explorer, System" option is enabled. When you toggle between light and dark, this will toggle Windows Applications, Windows File Explorer, as well as other applications that are listening to the "system's theme". See Suggestions for more details!
You can also enable the "Start Menu & Taskbar" option. When enabled, toggling between light and dark will also toggle the Start Menu and the Taskbar.
While Nightlight can only toggle Windows theming, you can tie in various applications with it! (You must have the "Apps, Explorer, System" option checked).
Below are some applications that can toggle with your OS, given you install the accompanying extensions:
- VS Code: Toggle Light/Dark Theme
- Google Chrome: Dark Reader
- GitHub (web page):
Nightlight should work on any Windows 10 build after version 1607 (released December 16, 2015), with varying degrees of success. As updates were rolled out, more applications gained dark mode support.
If you'd like to verify that Nightlight will work on your system, perform the following steps:
Open Windows Run by doing either of the following:
- search for "Run" in your start menu
- press the "Windows" and "R" key on your keyboard at the same time
Type into the search box:
regedit
and search.
After opening the Registry Editor, go to the following location:
Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Personalize
If you see AppsUseLightTheme and SystemUsesLightTheme then Nightlight is compatible!
To uninstall, go to Apps & Features, by doing either of the following:
- Right-click on the Windows Icon (Start Menu Button) and click
Apps and Features - Press the "Windows" and "X" keys at the same time, followed by the "F" key
From there, look for Nightlight and click the Uninstall button
If you had Nightlight running, you may have to exit out of separately as uninstalling (currently) does not stop the program.
While Nightlight was built on a Windows machine for Windows installs, a few of the Makefile recipes use UNIX commands. In order to use these recipes, I recommend installing Cmder.
Nightlight was created with .Net 5.0.2 and written in C#. Install the latest version of .Net from here.
To do a clean build and start Nightlight, run the following command in your CLI:
make
Program.csis the main entry point to NightlightNightlightApp.cscontains the icon UIThemeSwitcher.cscontains the code to change Windows Registry valuesassetscontains the icon files
Deployment is done via ClickOnce.
The following allows you to deploy via ClickOnce via a CLI:
Download Mage:
dotnet tool install --global Microsoft.DotNet.Mage
Update the version in nightlight.csproj:
And then run the following:
make release
The resulting release-x.x.x.x.tar is the distributable that will be downloaded by end users.
Settings icon was made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com.
All other icons were custom-made for this program.