SSMS Dark Mode
Date: 12/3/2024 10:05:27 PM
Okay, so I took a nap this evening before returning to my workstation for some coding, and SSMS' light theme just about burned my retinas out after coming out of a dark room. Enough was enough and I needed to figure out how to enable dark mode for SSMS.
Tools -> Options -> Environment -> General certainly has a "Color theme" option, but the drop down only has Blue, Extra Contrast and Light. Hmm.
Let's cut to the chase because I have some TODOs to knock out tonight...
The setting for SSMS dark mode exists, it's just been disabled by Microsoft for some reason. I'm guessing it's because only the query editor and main app's chrome has been "darkened". It seems the results pane and server explorer unfortunately remain in a light theme. But yet, darkening some of the app still bets retina burn. Here's the trick...
- Make sure SSMS is closed.
- Locate the ssms.pkgundef file and open it with a text editor (admin mode / UAC elevation is going to be required here). The file for me was located at C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio 19\Common7\IDE\ssms.pkgundef, but your mileage may vary depending on your installed version.
- Scroll down to the bottom of the file, and you're going to see this
// Remove Dark theme
[$RootKey$\Themes\{1ded0138-47ce-435e-84ef-9ec1f439b749}]
- Simply comment out the second line to disable the "Remove Dark Theme" option, like this:
// Remove Dark theme
//[$RootKey$\Themes\{1ded0138-47ce-435e-84ef-9ec1f439b749}]
- Save the ssms.pkgundef file
- Restart SSMS
- The Tools -> Options -> Environment -> General -> Color Theme drop down will now have the "Dark" option. Select it, Okay, and you're eyes will thank you.
Hopefully in a future version, MS will finish applying the dark mode theme to the results pane and the server explorer.
Happy coding!