How to force Chrome light mode with Windows 10 dark theme
Chrome now officially supports the dark mode on Windows 10. The official support came with Chrome 74. Unofficially, users have been able to turn on the Chrome dark mode with a little switch on Windows 10 but it is no longer necessary to use it. Now, when you turn on the Dark theme in Windows 10, Chrome automatically switches to the dark mode itself. Likewise, if you’re using the light theme on Windows 10, Chrome will also use the light theme. If you want to use Chrome light mode with Windows 10 dark theme, you can do so but again, you will need a switch to force the change.
Chrome light mode with Windows 10 dark theme
Create a new Chrome shortcut on your desktop. To create the shortcut, look for the Chrome EXE. It should be at the following location on your system;
C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application
Right-click it and select Send to>Desktop (Create shortcut). Alternatively, you can look for Chrome in the Apps list on the Start menu, and drag & drop its tile on to your desktop.
Right-click the shortcut and select Properties from the context menu. On the Shortcut tab, add the following at the very end of the Target field. Make sure you add one space after the shortcut’s given target address.
--disable-features=DarkMode
It should look like this;
C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application --disable-features=DarkMode
If you have Chrome pinned to the taskbar, unpin and repin it. If you have any Chrome windows open, close them all. You only have to do this once. After that, the shortcut that you’ve modified will work regardless how many Chrome windows you have open.
Use the shortcut to open Chrome and it will run with the light theme even if you’ve set Windows 10 to use the dark theme. If you use any other Chrome shortcut to open the browser, it will open in dark mode if that’s what you’ve set for your OS.
There isn’t any way to disable the dark mode in Chrome completely. There’s no flag that controls it so you’re going to have to use switches to do the job. If you run Chrome with another switch, you can probably use this one alongside it.
Chrome’s dark mode isn’t bad. For one, it gets rid of the white new tab page which, when used at night is a lot like a flash going off each time you open a new tab page. As for the rest of it, it is fairly easy to navigate but it may not be for everyone.
