How to change MSSQL Management Studio theme?

Question

Different from: How to apply a theme to SQL Server Management Studio 2008?

What I want is to change the theme not colour scheme of the editor.

I want it to look as close as possible as Dark in 2015.

Answer 1

1. Install the 2010 Color Theme Editor in VS 2010.
2. Find the files somehwere in C:\Users\xxxxx\AppData\Local\Microsoft\VisualStudio\xx.x\Extensions\ .. for me, it was in \shvn3avp.com for the current version of the plugin.
3. Copy those files to a new folder: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\xxx\Tools\Binn\ManagementStudio\Extensions\VSTheme

4. Replace extension.vsixmanifest contents with:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
   <Vsix xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" Version="1.0.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/vsx-schema/2010">
   <Identifier Id="46b3817c-b0c3-42d1-8cea-d373f781b21e">
     <Name>Visual Studio Color Theme Editor</Name>
     <Author>Microsoft</Author>
     <Version>1.3</Version>
     <Description xml:space="preserve">Allows users to customize the color palette used for menus, toolbars, tabs, title bars, and other environment colors.</Description>
     <Locale>1033</Locale>
     <Icon>ThemeManagerIcon.png</Icon>
     <PreviewImage>ThemeManagerPreview.png</PreviewImage>
     <InstalledByMsi>true</InstalledByMsi>
     <SupportedProducts>
       <IsolatedShell Version="1.0">ssms</IsolatedShell>
       <VisualStudio Version="10.0">
         <Edition>Ultimate</Edition>
         <Edition>Premium</Edition>
         <Edition>Pro</Edition>
         <Edition>IntegratedShell</Edition>
       </VisualStudio>
     </SupportedProducts>
     <SupportedFrameworkRuntimeEdition MinVersion="3.0" MaxVersion="6.0" />
     <SystemComponent>true</SystemComponent>
   </Identifier>
   <References />
   <Content>
     <VsPackage>ThemeManagerPackage.pkgdef</VsPackage>
   </Content>
   

5. Import this setting: http://studiostyl.es/schemes/vs2012-dark-theme-for-vs2010

6. On the Customize Color dialog that opens on the Theme menu provided by the extension import his theme

Result:

For 2015 and SQL Management Studio 17RC1

Install the extension on VS2015 instead. Follow the above steps.

The folder on my computer was C:\Users\xxxxxx\AppData\Local\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0\Extensions\owbugenu.gif

The xml is:

<!-- language: lang-xml -->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Vsix xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" Version="1.0.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/vsx-schema/2010">
  <Identifier Id="B8CED2B3-FF48-4204-88E9-036CA39B83C8">
    <Name>Visual Studio 2015 Color Theme Editor</Name>
    <Author>Microsoft</Author>
    <Version>2.0</Version>
    <Description xml:space="preserve">Allows users to create and edit Visual Studio themes.  Themes can customize colors used for menus, toolbars, tabs, titlebars, the text editor, and other environment colors.</Description>
    <Locale>1033</Locale>
    <InstalledByMsi>true</InstalledByMsi>
    <SupportedProducts>
      <IsolatedShell Version="1.0">ssms</IsolatedShell>
    </SupportedProducts>
    <SupportedFrameworkRuntimeEdition MinVersion="4.0" MaxVersion="4.0" />
    <SystemComponent>true</SystemComponent>
  </Identifier>
  <References />
  <Content>
    <VsPackage>ColorThemeEditor.pkgdef</VsPackage>
    <VsPackage>Colors\Red.pkgdef</VsPackage>
    <VsPackage>Colors\Purple.pkgdef</VsPackage>
    <VsPackage>Colors\Green.pkgdef</VsPackage>
    <VsPackage>Colors\Tan.pkgdef</VsPackage>
    <VsPackage>Colors\DarkWithLightEditor.pkgdef</VsPackage>
    <VsPackage>Colors\LightWithDarkEditor.pkgdef</VsPackage>
    <VsPackage>Colors\SolarizedDark.pkgdef</VsPackage>
    <VsPackage>Colors\SolarizedLight.pkgdef</VsPackage>
    <MefComponent>ColorThemeEditor.dll</MefComponent>  
    <VsPackage>Colors\ThemeNames.pkgdef</VsPackage>
    <VsPackage>PkgDefAssemblyCodeBase.pkgdef</VsPackage>
  </Content>
</Vsix>

Answer 2

For latest SSMS v17.0 (or 2016) you can prematurely enable the Dark theme (apparently a work in progress?) by editing the file "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\140\Tools\Binn\ManagementStudio\ssms.pkgundef" (as Admin) and commenting out the lines following the "Remove Dark theme" comment (approx line 241), should look something like the following after finished:

// 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]

via https://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/136505-enable-dark-theme-in-sql-server-management-studio-2016

Answer 3

Here is my theme:

http://stingraedatabase.blogspot.com/2017/04/dark-theme-for-ssms.html

I've played with a few and I find this is the nicest on my eyes at night.

Answer 4

Or... Just import this .vssettings file.

There is a download available, but it downloads as a .doc for some reason. You can import it after you drop the .doc extension.

https://mikesdatawork.wordpress.com/2017/07/07/dark-ssms-theme-ssms-2017/

Answer 5

With SSMS 2016 it now runs on Visual Studio 2015 Integrated Shell, and you can to the same thing in the Visual Studio 2015 Extension of the ColorTheme without changing anything on the vsixmanifest file.

The draw back is that there is this pop-up error stating that the extension failed to load. just click "No", which means SSMS will no longer show the error.

At first, the ColorTheme will not load correctly, but after restarting SSMS, it will load. EDIT: I guess after restarting SSMS again the error will pop up agian.