[Desktop/Windows] Tray icon invisible (black on black) when taskbar is dark but app mode is light

Status Open
Maintainer reply None cached
Activity 1 comment · opened Sep 27, 2026

App: Claude Desktop 2.9939.2.0 (MSIX, x64)
OS: Windows 10 Pro 22H2 (10.0.19045)

Summary

The notification-area icon renders as a black spark on the black taskbar, making it effectively invisible, whenever Windows uses a dark taskbar with light app mode (the Windows 10 "Custom" color mode).

Steps to reproduce

  1. Settings > Personalization > Colors > Choose your color: Custom.
  2. Default Windows mode: Dark. Default app mode: Light.
  3. Leave Claude's theme set to System.
  4. Launch Claude and look at the notification area.

Expected: White spark (Tray-Win32-Dark.ico), visible on the dark taskbar.
Actual: Black spark (Tray-Win32.ico) on the dark taskbar, so the icon can't be seen.

Registry state:

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Personalize
  AppsUseLightTheme    = 1
  SystemUsesLightTheme = 0

Root cause

The tray icon is picked from the app theme, not the taskbar theme (app.asar, minified):

case "ico": return !e && nativeTheme.shouldUseDarkColors ? "Tray-Win32-Dark.ico" : "Tray-Win32.ico";

nativeTheme.shouldUseDarkColors follows AppsUseLightTheme (and Claude's own theme setting). The taskbar colors come from SystemUsesLightTheme. When these two differ, Claude shows the wrong icon.

Suggested fix

  • On Windows, choose the tray icon from SystemUsesLightTheme, and pick the icon again when that value changes (WM_SETTINGCHANGE / "ImmersiveColorSet").
  • Or ship a tray icon that shows up on both light and dark taskbars (for example, a white spark on an orange background).

Why workarounds are not acceptable

  • Setting Claude's theme to Dark, or Windows app mode to Dark, changes the look of the app or of every app.
  • Making the taskbar light changes the whole desktop.
  • The icon files can't be replaced, because the MSIX install folder is read-only and gets replaced on each update.

View original on GitHub ↗

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