Easy ways to Switch On or Off Dark Mode for Chrome on Windows 10

Dark mode became one of the most enabled features in Windows 10 October 2018 update. Dark mode for Chrome became natively available upon release of Chrome 74, which looks very similar to its incognito mode.

Dark mode benefits most creative professionals which makes their photos stand-out on dark background. Besides, dark mode may also help protect your eyes from blinding whiteness of your computer screen, especially during the night.

Here you’ll learn different ways on how to turn on or off Chrome’s dark mode on Windows 10. Make sure to update your browser to the latest version. To find (and update) your current Chrome version, just go to menu > Help > About Google Chrome; it should say “Google Chrome is up to date.”

How to easily switch on or off dark mode for Chrome on Windows 10

Unfortunately, you cannot find in Chrome settings where you can turn Dark Mode on or off. But the good thing is, Google Chrome adapts your current Windows 10 color mode setting (Note: dark mode is only available for Windows 10 October 2018 update and above). Therefore, to switch on or off dark mode in Chrome, you need to change one simple setting on your Windows, here’s how to do it:

1. Click Start > Settings > Personalization.
2. Under ‘Personalization’, from the left pane, click ‘Colors’.
3. Lastly, choose your color: Dark or Light.

Note:
For Windows 10 October 2018 (version 1809) users, the setting is a little different: Under ‘Colors’ setting, scroll down to ‘More options’ section, look for ‘Choose your default app mode.‘ There, you’ll find two options: light and dark, choose a color mode you want.

Google Chrome will then instantly turn into dark or light mode depending on the option you chose. Very simple isn’t it?

The image below shows a split view of Google Chrome’s Dark Mode enabled and disabled.

After doing this, please do note that this may also affect your UWP apps’ interface that follows Windows 10 color mode setting.

How to force dark mode for Chrome only on Windows 10

In this guide, turning on Google Chrome’s dark mode independently from Windows 10 can be done by changing your Chrome’s shortcut parameters.

1. Close all Chrome browser windows if running. Locate your Google Chrome shortcut on the desktop or pinned apps in the Taskbar.
   Or via taskbar search box: type Chrome, below apps section, right-click Chrome then click ‘Open file location’ from the pop-up.
2. Go to the shortcut tab from Chrome’s shortcut properties window.

   For desktop shortcut, right-click on the shortcut > click Properties > go to the Shortcut tab.

   For pinned app in the taskbar, right-click Chrome icon > right-click the icon again from the pop-up > click ‘Properties’.

3. Under the shortcut tab, in the ‘Target field’, put space at the end of the existing parameter(s) then add ‘--force-dark-mode’ (without quotes). Space is important to separate two or more parameters. For default Chrome installation, the result may look like:

   "C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --force-dark-mode

   

4. Click the OK button and relaunch your Google Chrome. Viola, you should now see a dark mode version.

How to turn off dark mode for Chrome only on Windows 10

This guide teaches you to switch off dark mode for Chrome even if your Windows 10 has dark mode enabled.

1. Look for Chrome shortcut via taskbar search box / Desktop / pinned apps in the taskbar.
2. Now, right-click on Chrome shortcut > click Properties > go to Shortcut tab.
3. Under the shortcut tab, in the ‘Target’ textbox, put a space at the end then append ‘--disable-features=DarkMode’ (without quotes). It may look like:

   "C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --disable-features=DarkMode

   

4. Click OK button. Now launch Google Chrome and you should see a normal or light interface.

Chrome’s Dark Mode isn’t working

If Dark Mode doesn’t work after doing the steps above, make sure that:

• you have correctly typed the parameters in the Target field in the shortcut properties window;
• no Chrome application running in the background. Use Windows Task Manager to check and end running instances of Chrome application (chrome.exe).