Notepad++ can darken its window and its editing area. They are related settings, not one switch that recolors every custom language. This independent note follows the user manual as reviewed on 9 October 2026.
Two color settings
Dark Mode, under Settings and Preferences, changes the application chrome. The choices are Dark Mode, Light Mode, and Follow Windows.
The editor colors for a language live in Settings, Style Configurator. A theme is the set of those colors. The installer can add extra themes if you included that component.
Turn on dark mode
- Open Settings, then Preferences.
- Open the Dark Mode section.
- Choose Dark Mode, or Follow Windows if the PC is already using a dark Windows theme.
- Enabling dark mode selects the dark editor theme you used before.
Windows file dialogs, such as Open and Save, can stay with the system theme. That is expected.
If the window does not update, close every Notepad++ window and start the program again.
Choose an editor theme
Open Settings, then Style Configurator. Pick the theme you want for the editing surface. A dark window with a light editor theme is allowed; change the theme if the text is hard to read.
If a language stays on the old colors
User-defined languages do not take the new theme colors automatically. Open the user-defined language editor and set colors that you can read on the new background.
A built-in language can also be missing from an older theme file. The user manual explains how to copy that language’s style block from the model theme. Do that only if you are comfortable editing the theme XML, and keep a copy of the file first.