SQL Server Management Studio Skin / Appearance / Layout

Question

Can you apply a custom skin / appearance to SSMS? I am thinking something along the lines of a dark theme (black background, yellow font) you\'d find in most IDEs

Answer 1

For SSMS 18:

There is already a default dark theme which is removed by key. You need to go to following file, go to section "Remove Dark theme" and comment the key out. The you will find the dark-theme in the settings. (Menu>Options>Environment/General - Color Theme)

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio 18\Common7\IDE\ssms.pkgundef

// Remove Dark theme
//[$RootKey$\Themes\{1ded0138-47ce-435e-84ef-9ec1f439b749}]

I found also a nice solution on a website that has a prepared powershell statement to change this:

powershell -Command "(gc 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio 18\Common7\IDE\ssms.pkgundef') -replace '\[\`$RootKey\`$\\Themes\\{1ded0138-47ce-435e-84ef-9ec1f439b749}\]', '//[`$RootKey`$\Themes\{1ded0138-47ce-435e-84ef-9ec1f439b749}]' | Out-File 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio 18\Common7\IDE\ssms.pkgundef'"

( Source: https://www.sqlshack.com/setting-up-the-dark-theme-in-sql-server-management-studio/ )