How to use darks theme ?

Although it’s not officially supported by Microsoft, the Dark theme is also available in SSMS 2016, SSMS 17 and SSMS 18.

Follow following steps to get dark theme:

  • Close Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio (the abbreviation used is SSMS in following text)
  • Open text editor in admin rights (I use Notepad++)
  • Locate ssms.pkgundef configuration file and open it. Configuration file is located at the following locations:
    • SSMS 2016: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\130\Tools\Binn\ManagementStudio
    • SSMS 17: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\140\Tools\Binn\ManagementStudio
    • SSMS 18: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio 18\Common7\IDE
  • Once the file is opened in the text editor, scroll down and find section of the code under the “Remove Dark Theme” heading, add “// ” (without quotation marks) at the beginning of the first line and save the file
  • Open SSMS and select Dark Color Theme (Tools –> Options: Environment –> General)

NOTE! When SSMS is upgrated this configuration file will set back to its defaults.

Powershell scripts for different versions

Open PowerShell admin rights and use following scripts.

SSMS 2016

powershell -Command "(gc 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\130\Tools\Binn\ManagementStudio\ssms.pkgundef') -replace '\[\`$RootKey\`$\\Themes\\{1ded0138-47ce-435e-84ef-9ec1f439b749}\]', '//[`$RootKey`$\Themes\{1ded0138-47ce-435e-84ef-9ec1f439b749}]' | Out-File 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\130\Tools\Binn\ManagementStudio\ssms.pkgundef'"

SSMS 17

powershell -Command "(gc 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\140\Tools\Binn\ManagementStudio\ssms.pkgundef') -replace '\[\`$RootKey\`$\\Themes\\{1ded0138-47ce-435e-84ef-9ec1f439b749}\]', '//[`$RootKey`$\Themes\{1ded0138-47ce-435e-84ef-9ec1f439b749}]' | Out-File 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\140\Tools\Binn\ManagementStudio\ssms.pkgundef'"

SSMS 18

powershell -Command "(gc 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio 18\Common7\IDE\ssms.pkgundef') -replace '\[\`$RootKey\`$\\Themes\\{1ded0138-47ce-435e-84ef-9ec1f439b749}\]', '//[`$RootKey`$\Themes\{1ded0138-47ce-435e-84ef-9ec1f439b749}]' | Out-File 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio 18\Common7\IDE\ssms.pkgundef'"