14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has recently started work on a dark theme for the built-in Windows 10 file manager called File Explorer, and by the looks of things, the latest Redstone 5 build comes with a welcome update in this regard.
The Redmond-based software giant hasn’t publicly announced a dark theme for File Explorer, but an early implementation was discovered in April.
Windows 10 build 17661, released to users enrolled in the Skip Ahead and Fast rings of the Windows Insider program, comes with an update in this regard, as the dark theme expands in more areas of the file manager.
What’s important to know is that this dark visual style isn’t enabled by default, but it requires a tool called Mach 2 to activate development features in Windows 10.
As you can see in this screenshot published on Twitter by @TechAndPets, the dark theme of File Explorer has indeed evolved, and now both the right pane and the address bar are black as well.
Not yet announced officially
Of course, things aren’t as refined as you’d expect them to be in an application developed by Microsoft, but it’s important to keep in mind that this is just an early implementation of the dark theme and the UI is projected to look a lot better by the time it gets the go-ahead for all users.
Windows 10 Redstone 5 is due in the fall, with September currently the target for finalizing development. This means that the dark theme in File Explorer could make its debut in preview builds sometime in the next two or three months, ahead of the public launch for everyone in the fall.
Also, keep in mind that Microsoft hasn’t publicly discussed this particular improvement, so in case something doesn’t go exactly as planned, the company could kill it off overnight without any prior announcement.