Windows 11 is automatically switching to light mode from dark mode or dark mode from light mode? It turns out to be a known issue that originates from PowerToys v0.95, and Microsoft is looking into it.
After hundreds of frustrated users complained, Microsoft confirmed it is aware of a bug in PowerToys v0.95 that mistakenly enables a new feature called Light Switch, which automatically changes your Windows theme based on time or location.
“I spent almost one hour trying to find out what could possibly set Windows from dark mode to light mode all by itself, and what switches back to the light theme when I manually set the dark theme,” one of the frustrated users wrote in a GitHub bug filing.
“My Windows theme color mode kept getting forcibly changed every 30 seconds. It took me nearly an hour to troubleshoot, and I even suspected a Windows component was malfunctioning,” another user explained how a bug in PowerToys ruined their one hour on a Friday.
If you’re affected, open PowerToys > System Tools and make sure Light Switch is turned off.
How Microsoft accidentally changed the themes of all Windows 11 PCs using PowerToys?
PowerToys is an open-source app with modules/features for specific use cases. PowerToys features are disabled by default even when an update is rolled out. But that didn’t happen on October 16 when Microsoft shipped PowerToys v0.95 with an interesting feature called ‘Light switch.’
As the name suggests, PowerToys Light Switch allows Windows to automatically switch between dark and light modes based on the time in your location. Or you can also configure it to follow a sunrise and sunset schedule.
While it’s one of the most requested features, it’s not what everyone wants. It’s also one of the reasons why PowerToys features/modules are not supposed to turn on automatically after updates, because they can upset some power users. This time, they did, and sadly, the victim is a crazy theme-changing feature.
In our tests, Windows Latest observed that Windows will revert the theme automatically, and it’ll always be the opposite of your preference. If you prefer dark mode, Windows will switch to dark or vice versa.
Worse, if you open Windows Settings > Personalization > Colors and switch to your preferred theme manually, PowerToys will revert your preference again.
Microsoft says it never intended to ship PowerToys with Light Switch enabled, but that somehow still happened.
“We never intended to have Light Switch be turned on by default – this is actually a bug, and we are working on a fix rolling out ASAP,” Microsoft’s developer noted in a post on GitHub spotted by Windows Latest. “Thanks for reporting, and sorry for any confusion this may have caused.
Dear Microsoft, please be careful with your updates
While PowerToys is not a native app, it is downloaded by millions, and thousands use it regularly on their PCs. If a silent update to PowerToys turns on a feature that changes the theme automatically, it can turn the entire situation into chaos and confusion.
PowerToys runs silently in the background, and one might not even know why their Windows is switching themes out of nowhere. Is it malware, a Windows update, or something else? In this case, it turned out the mysterious bug is nothing but a module from PowerToy.
For now, you can turn off the Light switch feature in PowerToys from System tools > Light switch and close PowerToys.
However, it should serve as a wake-up call for Microsoft.
Windows 11’s October 2025 Update is already causing havoc with bugs that break localhost, File Explorer’s Preview pane, and the keyboard and mouse in WinRE (Windows Recovery Environment). We now have another bug, albeit one tied to PowerToys.
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