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I'm not a daily Windows user, and Lazarus (at the moment) does not follow the Windows settings when set to Darkmode.
Understandably, I have some applications where Windows users would like to see DarkMode, but the widgetset (LCL) does not support this at the time.
After a lot of searching, I did find a way that at least looks like it is darkmode - keep in mind that its pretty close but not perfect.
This most likely only works with Windows 10 (I believe it even requires certain Windows 10 updats) and Windows 11.
Tested with Win32 and Win64 binaries.
These are the steps (files attached - extract in project directory) to make your application start (!) in darkmode under Windows, when Windows is set to darkmode.
Note that changing dark/light mode while the application is running, is not working at the moment (suggestions/input most welcome).
Source: udarkstyle.pas and uWin32WidgetSetDark.pas from metadarkstyle
So the steps I did: First the needed uses clause:
Uses ....
{$IFDEF Windows}
, uWin32WidgetSetDark, uDarkStyle
{$ENDIF}
... ;
To make it work fully, I've added this to my main forms "OnCreate" event - this fixes some minor details that for some reason are not done automatically:
procedure TForm1.FormCreate(Sender: TObject); begin ... if IsDarkModeAppearance then ApplyDarkStyle; ... end;
The function "IsDarkModeAppearance" detects darkmode kind-a cross platform, this is the part needed for Windows:
function IsDarkModeAppearance:boolean;
const
KEYPATH = '\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Personalize';
KEYNAME = 'AppsUseLightTheme';
var
LightKey: boolean;
Registry: TRegistry;
begin
Result := false;
Registry := TRegistry.Create;
try
Registry.RootKey := HKEY_CURRENT_USER;
if Registry.OpenKeyReadOnly(KEYPATH) then
begin
if Registry.ValueExists(KEYNAME) then
LightKey := Registry.ReadBool(KEYNAME)
else
LightKey := true;
end
else
LightKey := true;
Result := not LightKey
finally
Registry.Free;
end;
end;
Note: The modifications I made were done in "uDarkStyle.pas" (line 254):
// mod to make sure light mode works proper as well // was: AppMode := TPreferredAppMode(pamDefault); if ShouldAppsUseDarkMode then AppMode := pamForceDark else AppMode := TPreferredAppMode(pamDefault);
What this does is make sure things work properly in light mode (pamDefault) and dark mode (pamForceDark). The latter makes sure the titlebar is dark as well.
Based on slightly modified excellent and extensive work by Alexander Koblov (Double Commander).
Thanks for the tip!
In the example I'm already using a unit from metadarkstyle (udarkstyle.pas), which I probably should have mentioned (correcting the original post in a minute). Totally overlooked mentioning that. 😊
