The Minecraft Launcher does not use a dark titlebar when the system theme is set to "Dark"

The titlebar of Minecraft Launcher does not support dark mode despite the fact that the launcher's own splash screen/window (the “Launching game…” window) uses the correct titlebar design which supports dark mode and the Mica material. Currently in Windows 11, the Minecraft Launcher uses the standard Win32 titlebar which is hardcoded white and does not support dark mode. This creates an inconsistency with the Mac and Linux versions of the launcher which both have full support of their respective operating system's title bar theming. A proper titlebar in Windows 11 can be seen in other software like Control Panel, OBS Studio, and Kdenlive, but also in Mojang-developed programs like Minecraft Bedrock (including the Beta & Preview).

Steps to reproduce:

1. Download and install the Minecraft Launcher from the Microsoft Store.

2. Open the newly installed Minecraft Launcher.

3. Observe the titlebar of the “Launching game…” window.

4. Observe the titlebar of the fully opened Minecraft Launcher.

Expected Result:

The titlebar of the Minecraft Launcher is painted dark with subtle colors pointing to the use of the Mica material. The Minecraft Launcher for Windows remains on par with the Mac and Linux versions with their use/support of OS specific titlebar theming as both the former and latter have full support of dark titlebars and any additional eye candy or design details that may come with such support.

Observed result:

The titlebar of the Minecraft Launcher is white with only a subtle hint of color from the hardcoded Mica material that is enabled by default in Windows 11 builds 22557 and above. The launcher is not in parity with the Mac and Linux versions which both feature full dark mode support for their titlebars. The titlebar’s color (white) and its state (light mode) is also inconsistent with the same launchers own splash screen that appears seconds before the launcher itself opens.

Possible Solution:

Assuming the Minecraft Launcher is using the standard Windows title bar (which I assume it does based on the fact that the launcher's titlebar has the same light mode transparency materials that were introduced in Windows 11 Build 22557 for the Dev Channel), and according to the official Microsoft documentation on how to Enable a Dark mode title bar for Win32 applications, to support dark mode aware titlebars on applications that do not have Dark Mode support, a developer would need to call the Desktop Window Manager’s DwmSetWindowAttribute function using the window attribute DWMWA_USE_IMMERSIVE_DARK_MODE. Information on how this would be accomplished including helpful code samples are available in the article, “Support Dark and Light themes in Win32 apps”, which can be found at Microsoft’s learn site under “Learn” / “Windows” / “App development”, and then further under “Framework-specific guides” / “Modernize your desktop apps” / “Overview” / ”Apply Windows 11 features”.

Additional Resources:

For additional information on how this could be fixed in the Minecraft Launcher for Windows, here are some developer resources from Microsoft that may relate to this issue:

• Support Dark and Light themes in Win32 apps

• Apply Mica in Win32 desktop apps for Windows 11

• Desktop Window Manager

• DwmSetWindowAttribute function (dwmapi.h)

• DWMWINDOWATTRIBUTE enumeration (dwmapi.h)

• Mica material