1. Press the Install button above to download darkMode-0.9.4.nvda-addon. Your browser may ask you to confirm the download, since .nvda-addon files are uncommon.
2. Open the downloaded file (press Enter on it in your Downloads folder). NVDA shows a dialog titled Add-on Installation that says: “Are you sure you want to install this add-on? Only install add-ons from trusted sources. Addon: Dark Mode 0.9.4”. Choose Yes. (This first dialog is still light: the add-on is not running yet.)
3. NVDA says “Please wait while the add-on is being installed”, then asks: “Changes were made to add-ons. You must restart NVDA for these changes to take effect. Would you like to restart now?” Choose Yes. NVDA restarts, and its windows and menus are dark from then on.
4. Updating later works the same way, except the first dialog says “A version of this add-on is already installed. Would you like to update Dark Mode version 0.9.3 to version 0.9.4?” Choose Yes. You can also install from inside NVDA: NVDA menu, Tools, Add-on Store, then Install from external source, and pick the downloaded file.

To turn it off, use NVDA menu, Preferences, Dark mode, or untick the box in NVDA Settings, Dark Mode. Turning it off restarts NVDA so that everything comes back exactly as NVDA draws it on its own. You can also assign a key to the toggle under Input Gestures, in the Dark Mode category.

• Dark everything: the NVDA menu, the Settings dialog and every category in it, the Add-on Store, dictionaries, input gestures, the log viewer, the Python console, message boxes, and the Welcome dialog.
• Dark help pages: the User Guide, the Commands Quick Reference, What's New, and add-on help open in your browser in dark mode, tables included, with every keyboard shortcut in a purple-outlined box and file names highlighted in dark purple. NVDA's own files are never changed.
• Black title bars and a light grey outline on every NVDA window, so dialogs stand out against the rest of your screen.
• A clear focus ring: your keyboard focus is shown as a solid ring in your accent colour (blue unless you change it), drawn just outside every control: fields, lists, buttons, tabs, check boxes, dropdowns, and sliders. The highlighted menu item gets the same outline.
• Focus outline thickness: a slider from 1 to 5 pixels (2 to start with) for every focus ring and the menu outline, for when a thin line is too easy to lose.
• Your own colours: a Background setting (dark grey, black, lighter grey, or a very dark red, orange, green, teal, blue, purple or pink) for dialogs, lists, the Python console, the speech viewer and the help pages, and an Accent setting (blue, red, orange, yellow, green, teal, purple or pink) for focus rings, the menu outline, selected rows, check boxes, radio buttons and slider handles. Any background goes with any accent, every change shows in the Settings dialog as you make it, and a Reset to Dark Mode defaults button puts it all back.
• Bright contrast: two check boxes that put selected rows, or check boxes and slider handles, in the full accent colour with black text and marks: the classic yellow on black with the Yellow accent.
• Check boxes and radio buttons drawn by the add-on: a light grey border in every state and a bold white tick or dot when checked, so they match whichever accent you choose instead of Windows' own blue.
• Three ways to switch: the NVDA menu (Preferences, Dark mode), the Dark Mode settings category, or a key you assign under Input Gestures.
• Steps aside for High Contrast: while a Windows High Contrast theme is on, the add-on turns itself off so it never fights your contrast settings.

• The add-on changes only how NVDA's windows are painted, never what the controls are. Check boxes are still check boxes, lists are still lists, and NVDA announces every control exactly as it did before.
• Text is white on dark grey (or on the background you choose), fields are a slightly lighter grey than the window behind them, and disabled controls are dimmed but still readable.
• Keyboard focus is shown with a bright ring in your accent colour (blue to start with), just outside the control; hover states on buttons, tabs, and slider handles are brighter than their resting state. Every colour pairing was measured: focus rings are at least 3:1 against what they sit on, and white text on a selected row at least 4.5:1.
• Built and tested by a low vision NVDA user, on Windows 11 with a 4K display at 225% scaling.

• NVDA 2026.1 or later, on Windows 10 or 11. Black title bars and the grey window outline need Windows 11; on Windows 10 those two fall back to Windows' standard dark title bar.
• Hopefully a stopgap. NVDA has no dark mode of its own yet. This add-on fills the gap for now, and the hope is that NV Access builds a native dark mode into NVDA, at which point this add-on can retire.
• A brief flash of white is possible. Because this is a workaround rather than a built-in feature, some windows may show white for a split second before they turn dark: Windows paints a new window light first, and the add-on catches up a moment later. The common dialogs and menus are covered; a rarely used window can still flash.
• Beta. This is the first public version. It relies on the same unofficial dark-mode switches in Windows that File Explorer uses, so a future Windows or NVDA update could change how some pieces look. If something looks wrong, tell us.
• The small "Checking for update" box is a Windows-native dialog drawn by Windows itself; it stays light. Only a change inside NVDA can fix that.
• Menu hover colours are whatever Windows draws for dark menus.
• It darkens NVDA itself, not other programs.

Dark Mode is free software under the GNU General Public License, version 2. The source code, the licence, and the development tools are all in the dark-mode-for-nvda repository on GitHub.

Productivity NVDA add-ons