Transparent Window Windows 10

The taskbar in Windows 10 is highly configurable, and Windows 10 already includes an option in its personalization settings to make the taskbar transparent. But, with a little Registry magic, you can enable a setting that gives the taskbar an even higher level of transparency.
Transparent Taskbar in Windows 10. Since Windows has no built-in tool or options to increase the taskbar transparency, we are going to use a free and open source application called TranslucentTB.

Windows 10 Transparent Theme
Enable Taskbar Transparency Windows 10

Windows 10 Transparent Theme

Like its predecessor, Windows 10 includes a personalization option to make the desktop taskbar transparent, allowing the user’s desktop wallpaper to be visible behind the taskbar. The taskbar is such a small portion of the overall desktop, however, that this option was hardly noticeable to most users in Windows 8. With the addition of the Action Center in Windows 10, however, the transparency option has been extended from the taskbar to both the Start Menu and Action Center, and offers a much more visually striking (if you prefer the transparency option), or distracting (if you dislike the transparency option) result. Here’s how to disable or enable taskbar, Start Menu, and Action Center transparency in Windows 10.

How to enable Aero Glass and transparency in Windows 10 I am sure most of you are familiar with the beautiful Aero Glass interface in Windows 7 and Windows Vista, with a fancy blur effect and transparent window borders. Oct 08, 2014 This entry was posted in Windows 10 and tagged Aero Glass, transparent windows, Windows 10 on October 8, 2014 by Sergey Tkachenko. About Sergey Tkachenko Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer from Russia who started Winaero back in 2011.

Note: Like its competitor Apple, Microsoft uses the word “transparency” to describe the visual effect discussed in this article. However, the more accurate term is “translucency,” as the desktop wallpaper, while visible, is clearly obfuscated by the foreground elements of the taskbar, Start Menu, and Action Center. Despite this difference, we will stick with the word “transparency” in this article to maintain consistency with Microsoft’s naming conventions.

To disable or enable taskbar, Start Menu, and Action Center transparency in Windows 10, head to Start > Settings > Personalization > Colors.
Scroll down until you see the option labeled Make Start, taskbar, and action center transparent. As its name describes, turning this option on will make your desktop elements transparent, and your desktop wallpaper will be visible behind them in a way that is similar to, although far less intense, than the Aero visual effects first introduced in Windows Vista.
Conversely, turning this option off will result in the use of a solid background color for your taskbar, Start Menu, and Action Center, which will completely cover their respective areas of your desktop wallpaper. The color used for both the solid and transparent backgrounds will vary based on your choices in the sections higher up in the Colors Settings menu, and will be either automatically set by Windows based upon your current wallpaper, or manually set by the user to one of 48 color options.
Regardless of whether your are enabling or disabling the transparency effects in Windows 10, the change you make will take effect as soon as you click the On/Off toggle in Settings, with no need to reboot or log off each time you change the option.
One word of caution for those running Windows 10 on older PCs with outdated graphics cards: although it’s not much by today’s standards, the transparency effect in Windows 10 does require some GPU horsepower. Therefore, if you’re running an older PC or graphics card and notice some sluggishness on the Windows 10 desktop try disabling transparency (and Windows 10 animations, too, while you’re at it) for a potential performance boost.

The taskbar in Windows 10 is highly configurable, and Windows 10 already includes an option in its personalization settings to make the taskbar transparent. But, with a little Registry magic, you can enable a setting that gives the taskbar an even higher level of transparency.

Make the Windows 10 Taskbar More Transparent by Editing the Registry

To make your Windows 10 taskbar more transparent, you just need to make an adjustment to one setting in the Windows Registry.

Standard warning: Registry Editor is a powerful tool and misusing it can render your system unstable or even inoperable. This is a pretty simple hack and as long as you stick to the instructions, you shouldn’t have any problems. That said, if you’ve never worked with it before, consider reading about how to use the Registry Editor before you get started. And definitely back up the Registry (and your computer!) before making changes.

Open the Registry Editor by hitting Start and typing “regedit.” Press Enter to open Registry Editor and give it permission to make changes to your PC.

In the Registry Editor, use the left sidebar to navigate to the following key:

Next, you’re going to create a new value inside the Advanced subkey. Right-click the Advanced subkey and choose New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name the new value UseOLEDTaskbarTransparency .

Now, double-click the new UseOLEDTaskbarTransparency value in the right pane to open its properties page. In the “Value data” box, change the value to 1 and then click OK.

After making the change, you can close the Registry Editor. To have the change take effect, you can either restart your computer or you can open up the Color tab on your Personalization settings (Windows+I > Personalization > Color) and toggle off and back on any of the settings in the “Choose a color” section.

Enable Taskbar Transparency Windows 10

Below, you can see a comparison of the regular transparency setting and the high transparency setting you’ve just configured in the Registry.

If you want to turn the high transparency setting back off, just go back into the Registry and either set the UseOLEDTaskbarTransparency value to 0 or delete the value altogether. You’ll then need to restart Windows or toggle one of the color settings again to force the change.

Download Our One-Click Registry Hacks

If you don’t feel like diving into the Registry yourself, we’ve created a couple of registry hacks you can use. The “Enable High Taskbar Transparency” hack creates the UseOLEDTaskbarTransparency value and sets it to 1. The “Restore Default Taskbar Transparency” hack sets the value back to 0. Both hacks are included in the following ZIP file. Double-click the one you want to use and click through the prompts. When you’ve applied the hack you want, restart your computer or toggle one of the color settings to force the change.

RELATED:How to Make Your Own Windows Registry Hacks

These hacks are really just the Explorer subkey, stripped down to the UseOLEDTaskbarTransparency value we talked about in the previous section and then exported to a .REG file. Running either of the hacks sets that value to the appropriate number. And if you enjoy fiddling with the Registry, it’s worth taking the time to learn how to make your own Registry hacks.

And that’s it. If you prefer a higher level of transparency on your Windows 10 taskbar, this fairly simple Registry hack is all you need.