Force light mode in Google Chrome

Solution 1:

As of the version 76.0.3809.100, this solution doesn't work anymore. (1),(2)

I took a look at this issue in Google Support and found this answer:

Add to Chrome shortcut properties target: --disable-features=DarkMode

So the entire target looks something like: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --disable-features=DarkMode

Do this to your desktop shortcut (and unpin/repin the icon in the taskbar to get the updated shortcut) and it should be light while Windows is still in Dark Mode.

Solution 2:

Currently I've found no real solutions but a few workarounds that I will put here for reference.

Set default app mode to "light"

The workaround I'm currently using is setting the default app mode to light. It's exactly what I don't want to do in order to fix this, but it's my best choice for now.

Download a Google Chrome theme

If you still want to have the default app mode set to dark, you can install a white theme to google chrome. This isn't really the best workaround. While it does give you a light mode chrome it also leaves your URL field completely dark.

Use a different web browser

This isn't really a workaround but choosing a different browser might relieve you from the fear of Google's scary whims. As I said "This isn't really a workaround" but sometimes many problems can be solved by switching browsers.

Use the --disable-features=DarkMode switch

Possibly the worst workaround is reverting to chrome to any version prior to version 76.0.3809.100, disable auto-updating and adding --disable-features=DarkMode to the shortcut used when starting chrome.

The target string should look like this "C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --disable-features=DarkMode. Of course the path itself will be different if you've installed chrome elsewhere.

The reason why this is possibly the worst workaround is because it not only leaves you without newer updates to chrome, but it's also a big security risk. Google actively push out security updates to their browser and without them you're more vulnerable to malicious attacks.

I won't mark this as answer as it doesn't propose a solution yet. I will add more workarounds (and hopefully a solution) here as I come across them.

Solution 3:

In the Chrome address bar enter the following:

chrome://flags#enable-force-dark

Then, for the option ensure that option "Disabled" is selected. After the change your browser will ask you if you want to restart - do so.