Summary
- Windows 11 previews a quick-settings dark mode toggle hidden in a new Energy Saver taskbar panel.
- It was found by an eagle-eyed insider in the preview builds; it’s currently hidden and works only on battery devices.
- Microsoft may expand Energy Saver options to desktops before its public rollout.
Personally, when I install a new operating system, my first port of call is to find the dark mode button, hit it, and leave it like that until either I uninstall the OS or my computer dies. I understand that there are some benefits to light mode that some people rely on, but I adore the shades of dark mode so much that I never think about going back.
There are some people out there who enjoy using light mode during the day and dark mode during the night. I can definitely see the appeal, and while it’s not for me, I’ll always support the option to have it. And while PowerToys has already added this feature, it seems that Windows 11 will let you do the same thing, albeit manually.
Windows 11 starts leaving Windows 10 in the dust as it takes over 21% market share in two months
It’s moving quick.
Windows 11 is getting a dark mode toggle on the taskbar
It looks very useful
This feature comes to us from the eagle-eyed PhantomOfEarth, who has been doing some digging in the latest insider builds. If you’ve never heard of them before, PhantomOfEarth enjoys going over the newest Windows test builds on the hunt for unannounced and in-progress features. In these test builds, some tools are often coded into Windows 11 but aren’t enabled due to being incomplete. Fortunately, PhantomOfEarth knows how to locate and activate these ‘hidden’ features.
This time around, PhantomOfEarth found a strange blank panel they could open in the taskbar, titled “Energy saver.” It seemed like a mere placeholder at first, but when PhantomOfEarth opened the same panel on a battery-powered device, it revealed its secrets:
Because this feature is a hidden tool in a preview build, it’ll likely be a while before we see it released officially on the insider branch, let alone on the release version of Windows. Still, it’s nice to see Microsoft adding it, and I can imagine that it’s working on making energy saver options for desktop PCs before it unlocks the tool for everyone to use.
