Add Dark mode theme or allow Win10's Dark Mode to override E++ (2024)

Looking at the Blog, the developer hasn't released any new features for 18 months. Looks like this project is dead.

Oh, yeah, it is crashing when browsing the network for shared folders. If I didn't need to do that, and preferred a blindingly bright GUI, the current version would be fine. But, neither of those statements are true. Deal killer, and with no new development coming in the foreseeable future, there will be no fix.

Maybe someone else should take over the project where the author left off.

Dark mode has been mostly implemented in the development builds for about 6 months now - see https://github.com/derceg/explorerplusplus/issues/115.

trading10 wrote: ↑Sat Aug 29, 2020 7:26 pmSince the request for a dark mode has been in this forum for years, with zero action, I would ask that instead of adding a dark mode, just allow the Explorer++ application to get its colors from Windows 10 like most any other application. Everyone knows this one change doesn't require a rocket scientist to implement, just a skilled programmer.

Unfortunately, changing the colors used by the Win32 controls tends to be difficult or impractical. Dark mode in general only works because of a few undocumented APIs. Allowing any sort of customization beyond that isn't really feasible. There's not really any way in which Explorer++ queries Windows for color information. The operating system is responsible for drawing the controls in the application and it draws them using the current theme. There is some ability to change how the drawing is performed, but it's very limited.

trading10 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 02, 2020 10:14 pmLooking at the Blog, the developer hasn't released any new features for 18 months. Looks like this project is dead.

There have been plenty of changes made over the last two years. There hasn't yet been another stable release, but development versions are updated relatively frequently. The latest build is from a few days ago: https://ci.appveyor.com/project/derceg/ ... nch/master.

Can someone help me with some really basic lamen terms on how to actually implement this for E++? I have read multiple tutorials and guides but my brain clearly doesn't understand how to use github, git, or notepad++. I have no real experience in coding but (I think) I can follow directions. I was able to download and install git, github desktop, and notepad++ onto windows 10 but I have no idea what to do with them. I have no coding experience and no matter how hard I try I get overwhelmed and most coders or tutorials talk as if the reader has a grasp on coding. I don't understand branches, commits, etc. If someone would be kind enough to explain what file to open and in what program and then what I need to type, edit, etc. I would greatly appreciate it. I have recently used a program called Kitty to edit file permissions via ssh? for my seedbox and was successful with that, so I don't think I'm a complete dipsh*t, but trying to figure git and all of this has made me question my intelligence lol

Thanks in advance.

There's no need to actually implement anything or make changes to Explorer++ if you want to use the current dark theme implementation. That implementation is available in the development builds and you can download the most recent build at:

https://ci.appveyor.com/api/projects/de ... m%3A%20x64

I like the dark mode but there are a few things I would like to point out a few things which could be fixed/improved on. Maybe the options already exist which I am not aware of. So here they are:

1. When I hover the mouse over the Explorer++ icon in the task bar, it shows all the tabs. Not a biggie but a cleaner look and feel to just have one small window show up.

2. In 'This PC' where all the drives are listed, in the Windows 10 default file explorer it shows the total disk size, disk space consumed and free space remaining in a graphical format but this feature is not there in Explorer++ as I have tried switching to all view types.

3. The difference in 'large icons' & 'extra large icons' is HUGE. Also, irrespective of which folder view you use, it does not display picture previews even if you select the picture.

4. Finally, as someone pointed out, the menu bar is not dark and neither is there an option to make it dark.