SSMS – Why Dark Theme is Disabled by Default

ssms

Why is the Dark theme disabled by default? Are there some bugs with this theme or something along those lines? It seems odd to me that it is forcible disabled on purpose.

I found plenty of links that I made use of to turn on the 'Dark' Theme for SSMS however I'm curious to know why this setting is turned off by default. Why is this one single line commented out in the ssms.pkgundef file?

Here's one of many links that show how to make available the disabled Dark Theme.
How to Enable Dark Them in SSMS

Basically I'm curious if there is some sort of consequence I'm unaware of by turning this feature back on. I can't find any links that state why it's turned off in the first place.

Screenshot of Dark theme enabled after making changes to ssms.pkgundef

enter image description here

Best Answer

Because it is a beta feature according to this blog, and this suggestion as well as this one for 18.1.

As a workaround, you can get some custom themes from the web. A favorite of mine is Aaron Bertrand's. He explains how to do it manually (so you can roll your own) and also provides a file you can just upload. Other blogs mention this as well.

Basically I'm curious if there is some sort of consequence I'm unaware of by turning this feature back on.

Like all BETA features, it isn't supported and thus if it breaks something else that's on you.