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.
"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 noted in a GitHub post, which has posts from dozens of angry testers.
Microsoft confirmed it is aware of an issue where the version 0.95 update automatically turns on a new feature called "Light switch," which is designed to change your theme based on time or location.
On October 16, Microsoft shipped PowerToys v0.95 with a handful of improvements and one 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. This time, they did, and sadly, the victim is a crazy theme-changing feature.
In our tests, Windows Latest observed that the PowerToys update incorrectly turned on the Light switch. If your Windows is using dark mode, it'll automatically switch to light mode or vice versa.
Worse, if you open Windows Settings > Personalization > Colors and switch to your preferred theme manually, PowerToys will revert your preference again.
PowerToys will continue to revert to the theme opposite of your preference, and it can happen in a loop.
Microsoft has found a fix and is preparing an update, which could ship as early as Monday.
"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. "Thanks for reporting, and sorry for any confusion this may have caused."
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. As much as I like open-source PowerToys, the company really needs to be careful with its updates.
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.