How to detect Windows 10 light/dark mode in Win32 application?

windows winapi windows-10 win32gui
c-smile picture c-smile · Jul 14, 2018 · Viewed 9.1k times · Source

A bit of context: Sciter (pure win32 application) is already capable to render UWP alike UIs:

in dark mode: in dark mode

in light mode: in light mode

Windows 10.1803 introduces Dark/Light switch in Settings applet as seen here for example.

Question: how do I determine current type of that "app mode" in Win32 application?

Answer

user7860670 picture user7860670 · Jul 14, 2018

Well, it looks like this option is not exposed to regular Win32 applications directly, however it can be set / retrieved through the AppsUseLightTheme key at the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Personalize registry path.

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