GUIDarkTheme UDF

[WildByDesign]

On 5/27/2026 at 12:51 PM, argumentum said:

24H2 is worse, with the GUICtrlCreateCheckbox() not changing the text color.

Can you please share the build and revision for the system(s) that still show black as the text color for a checkbox control?

ConsoleWrite("OSBuild with Revision: " & _GetOSBuild() & @CRLF)
Func _GetOSBuild()
    Local $__DM_g_iRevision = RegRead("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion", "UBR")
    Return @OSBuild & "." & $__DM_g_iRevision
EndFunc

I need to get an idea of which revision Microsoft added the TEXTCOLOR value to their aero.msstyles theme file. I know for sure that as long as __DM_DarkThemeAvailability() indicates support for DarkMode_DarkTheme, then we have no issues with Checkbox, Radio, or Group. But if it is not available, we use DarkMode_Explorer which had checkbox support but MS neglected to add TEXTCOLOR value. Sometime around 25H2, they finally added the value.

MS still has not added TEXTCOLOR value for Radio controls in DarkMode_Explorer, so we would still have to subclass that on affected OS builds. At the moment, we remove the theme from Radio controls on affected builds. But as soon as the subclass is complete, we will have beautiful radio controls.

For anyone that is using Windows 11 24H2 or earlier Win11 builds that show black text for the checkbox control, I am working on a subclass for Checkbox and Radio controls over in this help thread to fix those controls on the OS builds that MS had neglected.

[argumentum]

     

[WildByDesign]

GUIDarkTheme 2.9.0

• Added custom dark theme support for SysLink controls
• Added custom dark theme support for Progress controls
• Added internal function __DM_GetThemeDetails() for debugging issues
• Fixed issue with checkbox/radio buttons showing black text on earlier Windows 11 builds
  • Issue affected Windows 11 21H2 to 24H2 (MS fixed it halfway through 24H2/25H2 development)

Latest download available in the first post of the topic.

[xuankhanh1982]

@WildByDesign

In version 2.9.0

"GUICtrlCreateProgress" cannot be hidden.

 

[argumentum]

to be or not to be 🤔

..if you hide it after _GUIDarkTheme_ApplyDark() it will hide it but, if is before, it does not.
Hence a check on the visibility of the control is needed for when applying the colors  🤔

For now maybe

...
    _GUIDarkTheme_ApplyDark($Form1)
    GUICtrlSetState($idProgressError, $GUI_HIDE)
    GUISetState(@SW_SHOW)
...

until he thinkers with it.

Thanks for being a good beta tester @xuankhanh1982  

This is teaser:

Spoiler

 of what he's putting together  

[xuankhanh1982]

1 hour ago, argumentum said:

to be or not to be 🤔

..if you hide it after _GUIDarkTheme_ApplyDark() it will hide it but, if is before, it does not.
Hence a check on the visibility of the control is needed for when applying the colors  🤔

For now maybe

...
    _GUIDarkTheme_ApplyDark($Form1)
    GUICtrlSetState($idProgressError, $GUI_HIDE)
    GUISetState(@SW_SHOW)
...

until he thinkers with it.

Thanks for being a good beta tester @xuankhanh1982  

This is teaser:

  Reveal hidden contents

 of what he's putting together  

If you say so, it will be very inconvenient. Version 2.8.1 doesn't have this error.

I will try again using your method. Thank you for your feedback.

[argumentum]

1 minute ago, xuankhanh1982 said:

I will try again using your method. Thank you for your feedback.

..again, is not a solution, but rather a hack to get by until he fix it 🤷‍♂️

[WildByDesign]

7 hours ago, argumentum said:

Thanks for being a good beta tester @xuankhanh1982 

I agree, thank you. Your bug reports have always been very helpful and it benefits everyone.

I will look into this issue and fix it.

 

[WildByDesign]

12 minutes ago, WildByDesign said:

I will look into this issue and fix it.

I have a fix for it now. I'm hoping to get a release out later today.

[WildByDesign]

GUIDarkTheme 3.0.0

• Added new Demo GUI - courtesy of @argumentum
• Modern looking groupbox, checkbox, and radio buttons for pre-25H2 OS
  • Those controls notoriously had black text
  • Checkbox and radio button subclassing by WildByDesign
  • Groupbox subclassing by @argumentum
• Improved toolbar button border color
• Overall theme color consistency improvements for dark and light themes
• Fixed issue with hidden progress control showing on startup

Latest download available in the first post of the topic.

 

Demo.au3 is the new, modern GUI sample with more controls and a larger size which makes more sense for modern computers. It really put GUIDarkTheme UDF to the test. I still have to add dark mode for the HotKey (msctls_hotkey32) control and the IP Address (SysIPAddress32) control. This release was a significant amount of effort and would not have been possible without @argumentum's help.