How can I switch themes in Visual Studio 2012?

Question

The Visual Studio 2012 offers two themes, Light and Dark. I want to switch the theme to Dark, but I'm not able to find any menus or options to do that.

I found out a way importing settings from:

Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE\ FontsAndColorsThemes\1ded0138-47ce-435e-84ef-9ec1f439b749.vssettings

And the code editor is now in Dark theme, but other windows are still in Light theme, such as the Solution Explorer, Toolbox, and Toolbars.

What should I do to switch themes?

Answer 1

In Visual Studio 2012, open the Options dialog (Tools -> Options). Under Environment -> General, the first setting is "Color theme." You can use this to switch between Light and Dark.

The shell theme is distinct from the editor theme--you can use any editor fonts and colors settings with either shell theme.

There is also a Color Theme Editor extension that can be used to create new themes.

Answer 2

Tools -> Options ->Environment -> General

Or use new Quick Launch to open Options

For more themes, download Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 Color Theme Editor for more themes including good old VS2010 theme.

Look at this video for a demo.

Answer 3

For extra themes, including making VS 2012 look like VS 2010 see:
http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/366ad100-0003-4c9a-81a8-337d4e7ace05

Answer 4

Slightly off topic, but for those of you that want to modify the built-in colors of the Dark/Light themes you can use this little tool I wrote for Visual Studio 2012.

More info here:

Modify Visual Studio 2012 Dark (and Light) Themes

Source Code

Answer 5

For those who are using "High Contrast" windows themes but still want a regular Visual Studio theme you might notice that the theme selector drop down is disabled. You can still change it by doing the following...

1. Going to the registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\11.0_Config\Themes (or whichever version of VS you are using)
2. Export the key of the theme you want (it's a bunch of random letters / numbers) to a .reg file.
3. Then copy the "high contrast" key's name (again random letters / numbers)
4. Delete the high contrast key and then rename the dark theme to the copied name
5. Then import the exported theme from the reg file.

This permanently sets the theme to the one you've chosen.

Answer 6

Try the steps in here: If you don't have Visual Studio 2010 installed, some icons are provided.

http://supunlivera.blogspot.com/2012/09/visual-studio-2012-theme-change-get-vs.html

Answer 7

The Blue theme is now supported via Visual Studio update 2, and is accessed like the answer chosen for this question.

Answer 8

Tools--> Options-->General-->Color Theme

Answer 9

Also, you can use or create and share Visual Studio color schemes: https://studiostyl.es/

Answer 10

This worked for me!

Go to menu Tools → Options (the last ttem) → Color theme drop down and select Any.