Unlock the Dark theme for SQL Management Studio

I recently discovered this glorious option so I’m posting here both for my own memory and just to help anybody out that might need it.  If you, like me, are tired of taking your Visual Studio dark settings and meticulously making SQL Management Studio match, then this is a much quicker way to get there.

The defaults for this dark theme do not match my (somewhat nerdy) personal style for Visual Studio precisely but they are close enough to assuage my OCD 🙂

How to unlock the dark theme for SQL Management Studio

• Close SQL Management Studio (always a good move there sparky when you’re changing system settings)
• Go to this path (or the equivalent on your machine) … c:\program files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\130\tools\binn\Managementstudio\
• Edit this file … SSMS.pkgundef
• Find the following block of lines.

// Remove Dark theme
[$RootKey$\Themes{1ded0138-47ce-435e-84ef-9ec1f439b749}]
[$RootKey$\AD7Metrics\PortSupplier{4103F338-2255-40C0-ACF5-7380E2BEA13D}]
[$RootKey$\External Tools\Error Loo&kup]
[$RootKey$\LightSwitch]
[$RootKey$\Debugger\LaunchHooks110]
[$RootKey$\DiagnosticsHub]
[$RootKey$\FeatureFlags]
[$RootKey$\VB Editor]
[$RootKey$\Languages\CodeExpansions\C/C++]
[$RootKey$\Languages\CodeExpansions\JavaScript]
[$RootKey$\Text Editor\C/C++]
[$RootKey$\Text Editor\CSharp] [$RootKey$\Text Editor\Disassembly]
[$RootKey$\Text Editor\ENC]
[$RootKey$\Text Editor\JavaScript]
[$RootKey$\Text Editor\Memory]
[$RootKey$\Text Editor\Register]
[$RootKey$\Text Editor\ResJSON]
[$RootKey$\Text Editor\TypeScript]
[$RootKey$\Text Editor\VBScript]

• Comment them out.
• Save the file.
• Re-open SQL Management Studio The ‘Dark’ theme will magically appear as a new selection in the drop-down list for ‘Color theme’.

Shiny. Now get back to work 🙂