Have you recently installed Windows 11 on your computer to try it out? Do you not like to activate your copy of Windows 11 before trying it out, but want to turn on dark mode? This guide shows you how to turn on dark mode right from File Explorer without activating your Windows 11 installation.
As you likely have noticed by now, Windows 11 does not let you turn on dark mode without activating it. That is, unless the Windows 11 installation is activated or if you are using the trial version, you cannot personalize it. This means you cannot change the desktop background, themes, or colors, or turn on dark mode.
If you visit the Windows 11 Settings > Personalization > Themes page or Windows 11 Settings > Personalization > Colors page, you see a “You need to activate Windows before you can personalize your PC” message.
Users who want to try the trial copy of Windows 11 before purchasing it might want to turn on dark mode without activating it.
As mentioned before, Windows 11 does not let you enable dark mode in Settings when using the trial copy. However, there is a lesser-known way to turn dark mode on or off without activating it. No, we do not need any third-party software to enable dark mode. All we need is the built-in File Explorer to turn dark mode on or off.
Enable dark mode without activating Windows 11
Step 1: Open the Run command box using the search or the Windows logo + R keyboard shortcut.
Step 2: Type the following path and then press the Enter key to open the Themes folder. In the path below, “C” is the drive where Windows 11 is installed. Please replace the letter “C” with the correct drive letter of your Windows 11 drive.
C:\Windows\Resources\Themes
Step 3: Here, double-click the dark (.theme) file to apply the dark theme while also turning on the dark mode.
NOTE: If you have configured File Explorer to show file extensions, you will see “dark.theme” as the name, while it shows only “dark” if file extensions are hidden.
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