Recover Black Theme (True Dark Mode) in Office

 Why Microsoft does this to its users is beyond me. With the latest update to Office (Version 2011 Build 13426.20308), I have lost my beloved Dark Theme. My co-workers who have seen me set up 100+ bindkeys with Cadence know just how important this dark theme is to me.

Lost? What do you mean? Ask about Dark Mode or Dark theme on Google, and they tell you, in an Office app (PPT, XL, etc) go to File > Account > Office Theme and set Black. But : 

Now you know my pain :)

Google away - nothing you can do with the UI in Office will save you. The only thing that works (thanks folks for making this hack available, unfortunately, I don't see UI Themes ) :

1. Run regedit (#r to launch the Run dialog ) :

2. In the registry, go down this path :

HKEY_CURRENT_USER > SOFTWARE > Microsoft > Office > 16.0 > Common > Roaming > Identities > <WHATEVER, unique to you> > Settings > 1186  (Note, if you see multiple WHATEVERs, one way to find the one to hit is to see which one still has the 04 in Data (see below) and which one is set to something else. Sometimes a new one pops up. Don't ask why)

When you expand the 1186, you will see 

3. You won't see a 04 in the Data column for the Data row, because this is the "post hack" picture. If you have set Dark Gray, then you'll see 03. Anyway, what you can now do is double click the Data cell (in the Name column) and then you'll be able to edit

Use your arrow keys to get the cursor to the position shown, and then use backspace to clear out the 0x and put in 04 and then press OK and you're done.