Microsoft Edge has got custom theme support

Microsoft Edge now allows you to set a custom theme with a color editor, here's how to enable it. The change has already landed in the Canary version, but is hidden by default.

For many version, the stable version of Microsoft Edge supports several colorful themes. They change the color of the browser's frame, and the new tab page background. Also, Microsoft provides a set of custom themes in Edge addon store.

But things have changed now. First of all, some the inbox colorful Edge themes now reside in the Store. They are no longer preinstalled. Additionally, you can now specify a custom color for a theme of the browser (h/t to @Leopeva64). There is a new tiny button with a pencil icon over a theme preview box. It opens a color picker dialogue, so the user can select the color to apply to the browser frame and its controls.

By default, the theme editor is hidden. However, as discovered by @HotCakeX, it is easy to enable it by adding an enable-features argument to the msedge.exe file. Just don't forget to install the most recent Edge Canary version.

To enable the custom theme support with a color picker for Microsoft Edge, do the following.

Enable Custom Theme in Microsoft Edge

1. Open Edge, and click on its Menu button with three horizontal dots.. Select Settings from the menu.
2. On the left, click on System and performance.
3. On the right, disable the Startup boost option.
4. Right-click the Edge shortcut, and select Properties from the menu.
5. On the Shortcut tab, click in the Target text box.
6. After msedge.exe, add a space and the following argument: --enable-features=msSettingsThemesColorPicker. So you will get msedge.exe --enable-features=msSettingsThemesColorPicker.
7. Click OK.
8. Close Edge if you have it running, and re-open it using the modified shortcut.
9. Open its Settings > Appearance. You now have a new Pick a color button for the theme.

You are done! The custom theme is now applied to the browser.

Note: If you need to combine the msSettingsThemesColorPicker option with some argument, specify them separated via a comma. This will allow you to have several enable-features at once.

Yet another appearance-related option in Edge is the ability to enable the Mica effect on Windows 11. Microsoft has added and then removed this feature several times, but it has finally become available again in the Canary channel.

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