New macOS Big Sur beta lets you make Dark Mode darker than ever before

Apple made macOS 11 Big Sur beta 4 available to developers a couple of days ago and we're learning more about it as people take it for a spin. One change that will be welcomed by a whole bunch of people is the ability to disable Desktop Tinting.

But first, what is Desktop Tinting? In short, it causes windows to show the color of a user's wallpaper ever-so-slightly. It's Windows Vista all over again, but some people like it. It just isn't great at making windows appear dark, especially with ligther wallpapers.

Apps running in Dark Mode benefit from Desktop Tinting. When active, Desktop Tinting causes window backgrounds to pick up color from the user's desktop picture. The result is a subtle tinting effect that helps windows blend more harmoniously with their surrounding content. Users who prefer not to have the additional tinting, perhaps because they work with color-sensitive content, can disable this effect by choosing the graphite accent color in System Preferences.

By disabling Desktop Tinting, black windows appear black. Regardless of what's beneath them, as spotted by 9to5Mac.

Sure, this isn't going to go down as the biggest change when macOS 11 Big Sur arrives this fall. Apple could even strip it out before then, anyway. But if this feature does survice, expect it to be one of those little-known but much-loved checkboxes that we all have.