Windows – How to detect Windows 10 light/dark mode in Win32 application

win32guiwinapiwindowswindows 10

A bit of context: Sciter (pure win32 application) is already capable to render UWP alike UIs:

in dark mode:
in dark mode

in light mode:
in light mode

Windows 10.1803 introduces Dark/Light switch in Settings applet as seen here for example.

Question: how do I determine current type of that "app mode" in Win32 application?

Best Answer

Well, it looks like this option is not exposed to regular Win32 applications directly, however it can be set / retrieved through the AppsUseLightTheme key at the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Personalize registry path.