[HexChat][Windows] A Feasible Way to Achieve a Full Dark Theme (Including GTK UI)

I’m quite particular about having a consistent dark mode everywhere. I found the official HexChat documentation’s method for application-specific GTK themes (https://hexchat.readthedocs.io/en/latest/appearance.html#gtk-theme) didn’t work for my setup (HexChat 2.16.2 on Windows 11). The solution was to set a global GTK theme instead. Here’s how I got it working:

🎨 Step 1: Theming the Chat Content Area (colors.conf)

This step themes the main chat text, user list, input bar, etc., but not the window borders or menus.

1. Download a colors.conf file from a theme repository like Catppuccin for HexChat. (Choose a theme you like!)
2. Go to your HexChat configuration directory by typing %APPDATA%\HexChat\ into the File Explorer address bar and pressing Enter.
3. Replace the existing colors.conf file in this directory with the one you downloaded.

🛠️ Step 2: Theming the Application Window & Menus (Global GTK Theme)

This step themes the “outer shell” of HexChat – the window frame, menus, buttons, etc., making it truly dark.

🖌️ 2.1 Download a Compatible GTK2 Theme

• You need a GTK2 theme that uses the Pixbuf engine, as this is what HexChat for Windows typically supports well.
• The classic Vertex theme is known to work (I used vertex-theme-20170128.zip successfully). You can find the original download there, or look for more modern forks/alternatives if you prefer.

🔧 2.2 Install the Theme Globally for Your User

1. Unzip the downloaded theme archive (e.g., vertex-theme-20170128.zip) to a temporary location.
2. Navigate inside the unzipped folder, typically to a path like vertex-theme\common\gtk-2.0-dark\ (the exact path might vary, look for the gtk-2.0 directory corresponding to the dark variant).
3. Copy all the contents from inside this gtk-2.0-dark directory.
4. Go to your user profile directory by typing %USERPROFILE% into the File Explorer address bar and pressing Enter (this usually opens C:\Users\<YOUR_USER_NAME>).
5. Inside your user profile directory, create a new folder named .themes (note the leading dot) if it doesn’t already exist.
6. Open the .themes folder and create a new folder inside it named vertex (or whatever your theme is called).
7. Paste the theme contents you copied in step 3 into this new vertex folder. The final path to the theme’s gtkrc file should look something like C:\Users\<YOUR_USER_NAME>\.themes\vertex\gtk-2.0\gtkrc.

✒️ 2.3 Configure GTK to Use the Theme

1. Go back to your main user profile directory (%USERPROFILE%).
2. Create a new file named .gtkrc-2.0 (note the leading dot and no file extension) if it doesn’t already exist. Make sure it doesn’t end with .txt! (In Notepad, save as “All Files” and type the name in quotes: ".gtkrc-2.0").
3. Open this .gtkrc-2.0 file with a plain text editor (like Notepad, Notepad++, VS Code, etc.).
4. Add the following single line:

   gtk-theme-name = "vertex"
   

   (Replace "vertex" if you used a different theme folder name in step 2.6).

5. Save the .gtkrc-2.0 file.
6. Restart HexChat. It should now launch with the full dark theme applied to both content and window elements!

❗ Important Considerations

• Affects All GTK2 Apps: This global method will change the appearance of all GTK2 applications running under your user account on Windows (though there might not be many common GTK2 apps these days besides HexChat).
• Why Global Works: This is the standard way GTK2 applications look for theme configurations on Unix-like systems, and it seems HexChat for Windows recognizes this global setting more reliably than the application-specific one placed in its installation directory.

Hope this helps others achieve that perfect dark mode HexChat setup! Have fun!

😾 ROAST - stop cursor from blinking PLS

HexChat has a super annoying bug.

The blinking cursor really distracts me (maybe that just proves I kind of have ADHD, lol).

The issue is, you cannot apply both the theme and cursor settings in .gtkrc-2.0 simultaneously, even though you’d expect something like this to work (which seems totally legit):

gtk-theme-name = "vertex"
gtk-cursor-blink = false
gtk-cursor-blink-time = 0

You can either get your eye-friendly dark mode using just this:

gtk-theme-name = "vertex"

OR just stop the blinking with this:

gtk-cursor-blink = false
gtk-cursor-blink-time = 0

This ‘either/or’ limitation was a deal-breaker for me. I need my dark theme and no damn blinking cursor! That’s why I switched and am now configuring AdiIRC.

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