Windows 11 won’t be using dark mode by default on commercial SKUs, Microsoft has confirmed this week. At the company’s Inspire conference earlier this week, a Microsoft employee announced that “we’re going to ship all of the Windows 11 commercial SKUs in that IT favorite, beautiful dark mode by default,” but Microsoft has since reached out to us to confirm that this information was inaccurate.
In the statement we received, the company explained that Windows 11 SKUs will actually ship with light mode by default, but PC manufacturers will be able to ship their new Windows 11 PCs with dark mode if they choose to. Of course, consumers will still be able to choose between the light and dark mode in the Windows 11 settings.
We are aware that inaccurate information about Windows 11 shipping in dark mode on by default to all commercial SKUs was recently shared and apologize for the confusion. To clarify, Microsoft will ship Windows 11 SKUs in light mode on by default. However, OEMs can choose to ship their devices in dark mode and customers will have the choice to easily customize their experience in Settings to dark mode or light mode. As with all of our products, we will continue listening to customer feedback to ensure Windows 11 meets customers’ needs, wherever they are in their computing journey.
Both the light and dark modes in Windows 11 look really good, though it’s true that Microsoft still has some work to do to apply dark mode to various legacy elements on Windows 11 as well as Windows 10. This is probably why the company is going with light mode by default on Windows 11, and it likely was the safest choice for the software giant. Let us know in the comments if you agree with this or not.
