Restore Windows 10 Settings for file explorer.

Her File Explorer:

My File Explorer


Her Right Click Menu:

My Right Click Menu:


Hey Everyone,

I am trying to figure something out on my wife's computer. She wanted the dark theme for Win 10 File Explorer before this was added to the 1809 updated. She used something like winblinds (unsure of exact program) to change the look. She then later uninstalled it and anything else to change the theme so I am unable to restore settings.

When I enable Dark mode now, if I right-click the main menu is still light even though dark mode is no but also the text is also white due to the dark mode until you highlight it. Similar to the File Explorer, when dark mode is enabled the list of her files are dark but the boarder/header with the file, view...so on is light though dark mode is enabled. Also her ribbon is missing it just has that organize, Open, Give access to and New Folder options. I cannot find a way to return it back to default. Like mine. Her computer has been up and this has been done a long while ago like a year or more... before 1809 update so I'd rather find a way to return these settings to factory rather than attempt at reloading the computer to factory.

I have to enable dark mode back on her computer to show some of the settings I have written here but I don't have access to it at the moment but if needed, I can provide. Also any help here is appreciated.

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I was able to get the screenshots showing dark mode behavior.

Right-Click menu with Dark Mode


File Explorer with Dark Mode:

Hi @cscott0108, welcome to tenforums!

By the looks of it, her theme seems to be 'AeroLite', try switching back to the default Windows theme,

secondly, she seems to have installed 'Old/New Explorer' to have the classic style command bar instead of the Explorer Ribbon, try uninstalling that...

then set everything to Dark Mode.

EDIT: Hey! What happened to the OP and his question!?!?!?

Edwin said:

Hi @cscott0108, welcome to tenforums!

By the looks of it, her theme seems to be 'AeroLite', try switching back to the default Windows theme,

secondly, she seems to have installed 'Old/New Explorer' to have the classic style command bar instead of the Explorer Ribbon, try uninstalling that...

then set everything to Dark Mode.

Not familiar with these settings. Could you help here. I usually leave my default. I have not themed any of my computers since Vista. And thanks for the welcome.

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Edwin said:

Hi @cscott0108, welcome to tenforums!

By the looks of it, her theme seems to be 'AeroLite', try switching back to the default Windows theme,

secondly, she seems to have installed 'Old/New Explorer' to have the classic style command bar instead of the Explorer Ribbon, try uninstalling that...

then set everything to Dark Mode.

EDIT: Hey! What happened to the OP and his question!?!?!?

I'm not sure, I hit quick reply and posted the new pictures of dark mode and when I submitted it the post was gone.

cscott0108 said:

I'm not sure, I hit quick reply and posted the new pictures of dark mode and when I submitted it the post was gone.

No biggie!

Edwin said:

No biggie!

Thanks for the screenshots, is the oldnew thing providing the aerolite? Also when I click uninstall it prompts me with the UAC but it still says installed. I give it Admin permissions and hit uninstall it still says installed. Not sure what that is about.

The Old/New Explorer thing changes the Explorer Ribbon back to the classic Explorer Command Bar,

the AeroLite theme is a separate thing...

Her Computer with Dark Mode Enabled:



My Computer with Dark Mode enabled:




My original question is why can my wives computer not get proper Dark Theme. She added things like Windows Blinds (or something and other software, uninstalled some of it and I am unsure how to restore her computer back to allow 1809 dark mode to work properly.

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Edwin said:

The Old/New Explorer thing changes the Explorer Ribbon back to the classic Explorer Command Bar,

the AeroLite theme is a separate thing...

Okay, but still it doesn't seem to accept the uninstall. But I may have to just look into that deeper.

First: go to Settings/Personalization/Themes and invoke the default Windows theme...

Edwin said:

First: go to Settings/Personalization/Themes and invoke the default Windows theme...

Yeah, I got this fixed now. All that is left is that newold setting. But I'll leave that up to her if she wants to keep it. I thought it was part of the same thing for the windows setting. Since it's not it might be better to just leave it.

The Command Bar thing could be some Windows Blinds residual,

Grab this .bat file, unblock it if necessary, extract it and run it as Admin then reboot:

Purge Windows Blinds