electron/docs/api/system-preferences.md

systemPreferences

Get system preferences.

const {systemPreferences} = require('electron')
console.log(systemPreferences.isDarkMode())

Events

The systemPreferences object emits the following events:

Event: 'accent-color-changed' Windows

Returns:

• event Event
• newColor String - The new RGBA color the user assigned to be there system accent color.

Event: 'inverted-color-scheme-changed' Windows

Returns:

• event Event
• invertedColorScheme Boolean - true if an inverted color scheme, such as a high contrast theme, is being used, false otherwise.

Methods

systemPreferences.isDarkMode() macOS

Returns Boolean - Whether the system is in Dark Mode.

systemPreferences.isSwipeTrackingFromScrollEventsEnabled() macOS

Returns Boolean - Whether the Swipe between pages setting is on.

systemPreferences.postNotification(event, userInfo) macOS

• event String
• userInfo Object

Posts event as native notifications of macOS. The userInfo is an Object that contains the user information dictionary sent along with the notification.

systemPreferences.postLocalNotification(event, userInfo) macOS

• event String
• userInfo Object

Posts event as native notifications of macOS. The userInfo is an Object that contains the user information dictionary sent along with the notification.

systemPreferences.subscribeNotification(event, callback) macOS

• event String
• callback Function

Subscribes to native notifications of macOS, callback will be called with callback(event, userInfo) when the corresponding event happens. The userInfo is an Object that contains the user information dictionary sent along with the notification.

The id of the subscriber is returned, which can be used to unsubscribe the event.

Under the hood this API subscribes to NSDistributedNotificationCenter, example values of event are:

• AppleInterfaceThemeChangedNotification
• AppleAquaColorVariantChanged
• AppleColorPreferencesChangedNotification
• AppleShowScrollBarsSettingChanged

systemPreferences.unsubscribeNotification(id) macOS

• id Integer

Removes the subscriber with id.

systemPreferences.subscribeLocalNotification(event, callback) macOS

• event String
• callback Function

Same as subscribeNotification, but uses NSNotificationCenter for local defaults. This is necessary for events such as NSUserDefaultsDidChangeNotification

systemPreferences.unsubscribeLocalNotification(id) macOS

• id Integer

Same as unsubscribeNotification, but removes the subscriber from NSNotificationCenter.

systemPreferences.getUserDefault(key, type) macOS

• key String
• type String - Can be string, boolean, integer, float, double, url, array, dictionary

Get the value of key in system preferences.

This API reads from NSUserDefaults on macOS, some popular key and types are:

• AppleInterfaceStyle: string
• AppleAquaColorVariant: integer
• AppleHighlightColor: string
• AppleShowScrollBars: string
• NSNavRecentPlaces: array
• NSPreferredWebServices: dictionary
• NSUserDictionaryReplacementItems: array

systemPreferences.isAeroGlassEnabled() Windows

This method returns true if DWM composition (Aero Glass) is enabled, and false otherwise.

An example of using it to determine if you should create a transparent window or not (transparent windows won't work correctly when DWM composition is disabled):

const {BrowserWindow, systemPreferences} = require('electron')
let browserOptions = {width: 1000, height: 800}

// Make the window transparent only if the platform supports it.
if (process.platform !== 'win32' || systemPreferences.isAeroGlassEnabled()) {
  browserOptions.transparent = true
  browserOptions.frame = false
}

// Create the window.
let win = new BrowserWindow(browserOptions)

// Navigate.
if (browserOptions.transparent) {
  win.loadURL(`file://${__dirname}/index.html`)
} else {
  // No transparency, so we load a fallback that uses basic styles.
  win.loadURL(`file://${__dirname}/fallback.html`)
}

systemPreferences.getAccentColor() Windows

Returns String - The users current system wide accent color preference in RGBA hexadecimal form.

const color = systemPreferences.getAccentColor() // `"aabbccdd"`
const red = color.substr(0, 2) // "aa"
const green = color.substr(2, 2) // "bb"
const blue = color.substr(4, 2) // "cc"
const alpha = color.substr(6, 2) // "dd"

systemPreferences.getColor(color) Windows

• color String - One of the following values:
  • 3d-dark-shadow - Dark shadow for three-dimensional display elements.
  • 3d-face - Face color for three-dimensional display elements and for dialog box backgrounds.
  • 3d-highlight - Highlight color for three-dimensional display elements.
  • 3d-light - Light color for three-dimensional display elements.
  • 3d-shadow - Shadow color for three-dimensional display elements.
  • active-border - Active window border.
  • active-caption - Active window title bar. Specifies the left side color in the color gradient of an active window's title bar if the gradient effect is enabled.
  • active-caption-gradient - Right side color in the color gradient of an active window's title bar.
  • app-workspace - Background color of multiple document interface (MDI) applications.
  • button-text - Text on push buttons.
  • caption-text - Text in caption, size box, and scroll bar arrow box.
  • desktop - Desktop background color.
  • disabled-text - Grayed (disabled) text.
  • highlight - Item(s) selected in a control.
  • highlight-text - Text of item(s) selected in a control.
  • hotlight - Color for a hyperlink or hot-tracked item.
  • inactive-border - Inactive window border.
  • inactive-caption - Inactive window caption. Specifies the left side color in the color gradient of an inactive window's title bar if the gradient effect is enabled.
  • inactive-caption-gradient - Right side color in the color gradient of an inactive window's title bar.
  • inactive-caption-text - Color of text in an inactive caption.
  • info-background - Background color for tooltip controls.
  • info-text - Text color for tooltip controls.
  • menu - Menu background.
  • menu-highlight - The color used to highlight menu items when the menu appears as a flat menu.
  • menubar - The background color for the menu bar when menus appear as flat menus.
  • menu-text - Text in menus.
  • scrollbar - Scroll bar gray area.
  • window - Window background.
  • window-frame - Window frame.
  • window-text - Text in windows.

Returns String - The system color setting in RGB hexadecimal form (#ABCDEF). See the Windows docs for more details.

systemPreferences.isInvertedColorScheme() Windows

Returns Boolean - true if an inverted color scheme, such as a high contrast theme, is active, false otherwise.