RobertJSawyer

For use only with Evernote (also known as Evernote Legacy) versions 6.25.2.9198 (the last version before Evernote 10) and below.

Completely updated 30 September 2020. The older versions of this patch only changed the note background color; this version also changes the color of the note list as well.

Provided as is with no warranty of any kind; use at your own risk.

For use with Evernote for Windows only.

Evernote for Windows has a glaring white user interface many people find hard to use in dim rooms or at night. This procedure changes the on-screen display of the background color of Evernote notes (without actually altering the note in any way) and also changes the on-screen display of the background color for the note list as well as making the highlight color and divider lines in the note list contrast well with the new background color.

Special thanks to Ashetty for suggesting revised SFK commands.

Just follow these steps.  The whole process should take you less than ten minutes.  (For those who wish to customize the procedure, the file EN-color.bat is heavily commented and contains contains customization notes at the end.)

[ * ] First, set the Dark theme for Evernote's Left Panel display -- the only part of a night mode that Evernote's developers actually give Windows users.  You can do that at this setting inside the Evernote client:

Tools | Options | General | Left panel theme | Default (dark)

[ * ] Next, initiate an Evernote sync by clicking the Sync icon in the Evernote tool bar.  Please wait until it the sync is complete.

[ * ] Now, exit the Evernote program (File menu, and then Exit).

[ * ] Also close the Evernote tray icon (the elephant symbol) by right-clicking on it and selecting "Quit Evernote."

[ * ] This probably won't be necessary, but you can also close the separate EvernoteClipper.exe program, which might be running in the background.  Hold down these keys simultaneously:  CTRL ALT DELETE

That will bring up the "Windows Task Manager."  Click on the "Processes" tab and scroll down the list (it's in alphabetical order) to the entry "EvernoteClipper.exe" With that entry highlighted, click the "End Process" button at the bottom right, and then click "End Process" again in the confirmation dialog that will pop up.

Close Windows Task Manager by choosing the "File" menu and then "Exit Task Manager."

[ * ] Download the file attached to this message called EN-color.txt

[ * ] Rename the downloaded filed EN-color.txt to EN-color.bat -- Windows will pop up a warning box as you try to do this, but answer yes and go ahead and make the change.  I provide this file as type .txt instead of .bat because some virus-checkers don't like downloading any file of the .bat type.

[ * ] Place the renamed file -- EN-color.bat -- in you Evernote program folder, which is probably C:\Program Files (x86)\Evernote\Evernote but might be c:\Program Files\Evernote\Evernote.  Note that you are putting EN-color.bat in a folder named Evernote that is beneath ANOTHER folder named Evernote.

If your Evernote program folder isn't in either of the places I mentioned above (only one of which should exist), you can find out where your Evernote.exe is located by right-clicking on the Evernote icon, then selecting properties, then the "Shortcut" tab, and then looking at the value in "Start in" field; that value is the folder that contains your Evernote.exe file.

[ * ] This batch file requires the free utility Swiss File Knife, which you can download from here:

http://stahlworks.com/dev/swiss-file-knife.html

In the second paragraph on that page, you'll see the text:

"Download SFK for Windows here or from SourceForge", where both "here" and "SourceForge" are links.

Click on the link named "here" and a file named sfk.exe will be downloaded to your computer.

[ * ] If you clicked the "SourceForge" link, or if for any other reason the downloded file isn't named just sfk.exe but rather has numbers in it such as sfk197.exe, rename the downloaded file so that it is simply sfk.exe

[ * ] Place sfk.exe in your Evernote program folder, which, again, is probably c:\Program Files (x86)\Evernote\Evernote but might be c:\Program Files\Evernote\Evernote.  As before, you are placing this file in a folder named Evernote beneath a parent folder also named Evernote.

NOTE: If you are running a third-party antivirus program (something other than Windows Defender, which is included with Windows), you may get a warning that sfk.exe is unsafe.  What that means is that the antivirus program has (quite rightly) detected that sfk.exe has the ability to modify program files -- which is exactly what we're about to use it for.  Disable your antivirus program and try again.

[ * ] If your Evernote program is not on Drive C:, edit line number 114 in EN-color.bat to show the appropriate drive letter (if your Evernote is on Drive D:, for instance, then just change this to D:).  Use a text editor, not a word processor, to do this.

C:
CD \

[ * ] Next, you have to get to a command prompt.

Under Windows 10, click Start.  Scroll down and expand the "Windows System" folder.  RIGHT-CLICK on "Command Prompt," and choose "Run as administrator."  (If that doesn't work -- if you don't have administrator privileges on your computer -- then just LEFT-CLICK on "Command Prompt.")

Under Windows 7, click Start, then choose "Run" from the start menu, then type CMD and hit Enter.

[ * ] You'll now see the command prompt, which will look something like this:

C:\Users\Username>

Your cursor will be right after the ">" sign. At that spot type PRECISELY THIS (spaces matter):

cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\Evernote\Evernote"

The command prompt will change to:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Evernote\Evernote>

IF AND ONLY IF that doesn't work, THEN AND ONLY THEN type this:

cd "\Program Files\Evernote\Evernote"

The command prompt will change to:

C:\Program Files\Evernote\Evernote>

[*] And now it's magic time!  At the command prompt, type the name of this very batch file:

EN-color.bat

A bunch of messages will flash on your screen, and you'll end up
with a display similar to this:

[total hits/matching patterns/non-matching patterns]
[001/1/0] Evernote.exe
1 files checked, 1 changed.

[total hits/matching patterns/non-matching patterns]
[004/1/0] Evernote.exe
1 files checked, 1 changed.

[total hits/matching patterns/non-matching patterns]
[009/1/0] Evernote.exe
1 files checked, 1 changed.

If the FIRST "changed" line says "0 changed" instead of "1 changed," that means the background color for notes failed to be changed for some reason (probably, in this case and the two below, because you've already run this batch file).

If the SECOND "changed" line says "0 changed" instead of "1 changed," that means the background color for the notes list failed to be changed for some reason.

If the THIRD "changed" line says "0 changed" instead of "1 changed," that means the background color for the divider line in the notes list failed be changed for some reason.

[*] At the command prompt type:

exit

That will close the command-prompt session.

[ * ] If you disabled your antivirus program earlier, re-enable it now.

[ * ] Finally, simply run Evernote as normal, and you should see darker background colors for notes and for the note list.

That's it!
 

EN-color.txt