Firstly, don’t download HexChat from the Microsoft Store on Windows 10/11. For some reason, the Windows Store version doesn’t include the Theme Manager, which you need to install custom color schemes.

Download and run the latest “Hack” font installer from here: https://sourcefoundry.org/hack/.

Head over to HexChat’s home page: https://hexchat.github.io/downloads.html. Download the latest HexChat Windows 64bit installer. Run the installer and make sure you select the following install options:

• HexChat Theme Manager
• Plugins:
  • Update Checker
• Language Interfaces:
  • Lua (Note: it’s not required, but you can also select to install the Perl and/or Python language Interfaces.)

Next, go to the themes page: https://hexchat.github.io/themes.html. Select a theme you like, for the purpose of this guide I’m using the “Monokai” theme. Save the file to your downloads folder.

Open Windows Search, and search for “HexChat Theme Manager” or just “HexChat”. Open the Theme Manager, and click the “Add” button. Navigate to your Downloads folder, select the downloaded “Monokai.hct” file, and click “Open” and then “Apply”.

Close the Theme Manager. Open HexChat, click on the “Settings” menu and select “Preferences”. Click on the “Appearance” tab. Change the “Main font” to “Hack” and it’s size to 12. Click “OK” to close the “Preferences” window.

Click on the “Settings” menu and select the “Text Events” option. Locate the “Channel Message” event. Double click on “Channel Message” setting and replace the text with:

%C18<$4$3$1> %O$t$2

And press the Enter/Return key to accept the change.

Scroll down and change the “Your Message” event by double clicking on the “Your Message” event and replacing it with:

%C20<$4$3$1> %O%C30$t$2%O

And press the Enter/Return key again to accept the changes.

Click the “OK” button to save the changes. Close HexChat.

HexChat uses the GTK user interface library, but it only comes with one light theme. If you prefer a dark theme, you can get xPaw’s “Re-Crono for HexChat” theme from here: https://github.com/xPaw/Re-Crono-HexChat.

Download the archive, and extract it to “C:\Program Files\HexChat”.

Re-open “HexChat” and you should be greeted with something that looks like this…