How do disable transparency in Windows 8's taskbar?


Recommended Posts

There is no transparency on Window borders or the Taskbar in Windows 8 RTM... If you're using a preview the option controlling opacity is where it was in Windows 7, Personalization/Window Color.

If you're actually wanting to ENABLE transparency on the Taskbar and Window borders in Windows 8 RTM: http://www.intowindows.com/enable-aero-glass-in-windows-8/

  On 30/08/2012 at 09:25, thomastmc said:

There is no transparency on Window borders or the Taskbar in Windows 8 RTM... If you're using a preview the option controlling opacity is where it was in Windows 7, Personalization/Window Color.

There is transparency in the Win8 Taskbar... [snipped]

Edited by Denis W
  • Like 2
  On 30/08/2012 at 09:53, Xerax said:

There is transparency in the Win8 Taskbar... Don't talk about something if you don't know what your talking about.

My theme was synced from RP, hadn't changed it. [snipped]

Edited by Denis W

Here's your solution for an opaque Taskbar.

Go to c:\windows\resources\themes\

Copy your .theme file someplace else

Under the key [VisualStyles] change the pointer to Aero.msstyles to point to AeroLite.msstyles

Double click your .theme file

Now your Taskbar is no longer translucent.

This also changes other aspects of the UI though.

  On 30/08/2012 at 12:14, thomastmc said:

My theme was synced from RP, hadn't changed it. [snipped]

My theme is synced from the RP when transparency was OFF, and the transparency is still here in the taskbar with RTM [snipped] Edited by Denis W
  On 30/08/2012 at 12:24, Detection said:

Yea I don't understand why the taskbar was left transparent, I can't think of any reason you would want it to be, error or purposely left ?

It is explained in the extremely detailed Jensen Harris 'Creating the Windows 8 user experience' post, Building Windows 8 blog.

  On 30/08/2012 at 12:52, Anthonyd said:

My theme is synced from the RP when transparency was OFF, and the transparency is still here in the taskbar with RTM [snipped]

[snipped]

Use AeroLite.msstyles, as my synced theme from RP did.

Go to c:\windows\resources\themes\

Copy your .theme file someplace else

Under the key [VisualStyles] change the pointer to Aero.msstyles to point to AeroLite.msstyles

Double click your .theme file

Now your Taskbar is no longer translucent.

screen_20120830b.jpg

Edited by Denis W
  On 30/08/2012 at 12:54, Subhadip said:

It is explained in the extremely detailed Jensen Harris 'Creating the Windows 8 user experience' post, Building Windows 8 blog.

You mean this extremely detailed explanation ?

"The taskbar continues to blend into the desktop wallpaper"

The full quote was this:

  Quote
We applied the principles of ?clean and crisp? when updating window and taskbar chrome. Gone are the glass and reflections. We squared off the edges of windows and the taskbar. We removed all the glows and gradients found on buttons within the chrome. We made the appearance of windows crisper by removing unnecessary shadows and transparency. The default window chrome is white, creating an airy and premium look. The taskbar continues to blend into the desktop wallpaper, but appears less complicated overall.

Also they said that it was an extremely detailed post (which it is), not an extremely detailed explanation. :p

  On 30/08/2012 at 13:02, thomastmc said:

[snipped]

Use AeroLite.msstyles, as my synced theme from RP did.

Go to c:\windows\resources\themes\

Copy your .theme file someplace else

Under the key [VisualStyles] change the pointer to Aero.msstyles to point to AeroLite.msstyles

Double click your .theme file

Now your Taskbar is no longer translucent.

screen_20120830b.jpg

:o What have you done to windows 8 ?

Edited by Denis W
  On 30/08/2012 at 13:39, Detection said:

:o What have you done to windows 8 ?

The funny thing is, this has been my theme since install on Aug 6. I thought this was what everyone else was seeing too, as I knew the RTM UI was going to be different than RP. Ooops.

I have to say though, I like the translucent Taskbar and the window buttons more than the "Lite" theme. I'm going with it now.

  On 30/08/2012 at 08:01, MikeHellstone said:

If you go to personalize settings you can set the window colour and transparency.

If you mean 'just the taskbar', then i'm sorry i don;t know.

There is no option anywhere in Windows 8 to set transparency. Another feature removed from this awesomely great operating system!!

  On 30/08/2012 at 09:25, thomastmc said:

There is no transparency on Window borders or the Taskbar in Windows 8 RTM... If you're using a preview the option controlling opacity is where it was in Windows 7, Personalization/Window Color.

If you're actually wanting to ENABLE transparency on the Taskbar and Window borders in Windows 8 RTM: http://www.intowindo...s-in-windows-8/

There is a slight transparency in the taskbar in Windows 8 RTM. But there is no way to adjust it's transparency or remove it.

  On 30/08/2012 at 12:52, Anthonyd said:

My theme is synced from the RP when transparency was OFF, and the transparency is still here in the taskbar with RTM [snipped]

I believe the reason my theme synced to AeroLite instead of Aero is that I didn't just have transparency turned off, but was using a "Basic" theme in RP.

When I heard that the RTM was going to disable Aero (which turned out not to be all that true) I turned off Aero in the RP to see what it would be like. I wasn't all that disappointed and just never switched back.

Edited by Denis W
  On 30/08/2012 at 14:15, thomastmc said:

Read my previous post with screenshot.

Word. That's pretty interesting. Of course, I was mainly talking about how there's no setting anywhere that let's you switch off the slight transparency in the Taskbar.

  On 30/08/2012 at 13:39, Detection said:

:o What have you done to windows 8 ?

He switched to Aero Lite theme in Windows 8. This theme is ugly, because it makes the scroll bars look ugly, the close/minimize/maximize buttons look ugly, and everything else look ugly. The ribbon itself is ugly. The Aero lite is for the server version of Windows. It can also be synced to RTM if you have been using Aero lite in the RP version. The method he showed is way to complicated than the simple steps you can follow to get back this ugly looking Aero lite theme. Bing it (or google it) to see how to enable Aero Lite in Windows 8 RTM.

But seriously, there is no reason you should be using this ugly theme. You are giving up good UI controls in return for an opaque taskbar. Switch to the RTM theme and see how beautiful it looks compared to this server theme.

Also, the taskbar is transparent for eye candy. It follows the digitally authencticaty by being flat and "modern looking". It's not glass, but, rather, it is trying to show the wallpaper while keeping the taskbar vivid. Window boarders work better without transparancy because transparency with overlapping windows look ugly. And the transparency on task bar was intentional according to the MSDN blog.

  On 31/08/2012 at 14:15, Xerax said:

[snipped]

It wasn't as if I was trying to mislead anyone... It just turned out that I was both wrong and had serendipitously stumbled upon a working solution at the same time :huh:

Maybe a little conversation before making an accusation next time.

  On 31/08/2012 at 15:43, Nazmus Shakib Khandaker said:

He switched to Aero Lite theme in Windows 8. This theme is ugly, because it makes the scroll bars look ugly, the close/minimize/maximize buttons look ugly, and everything else look ugly. The ribbon itself is ugly. The Aero lite is for the server version of Windows. It can also be synced to RTM if you have been using Aero lite in the RP version. The method he showed is way to complicated than the simple steps you can follow to get back this ugly looking Aero lite theme. Bing it (or google it) to see how to enable Aero Lite in Windows 8 RTM.

But seriously, there is no reason you should be using this ugly theme. You are giving up good UI controls in return for an opaque taskbar. Switch to the RTM theme and see how beautiful it looks compared to this server theme.

Also, the taskbar is transparent for eye candy. It follows the digitally authencticaty by being flat and "modern looking". It's not glass, but, rather, it is trying to show the wallpaper while keeping the taskbar vivid. Window boarders work better without transparancy because transparency with overlapping windows look ugly. And the transparency on task bar was intentional according to the MSDN blog.

Totally agree.

Edited by Denis W
  On 01/09/2012 at 04:18, thomastmc said:

It wasn't as if I was trying to mislead anyone... It just turned out that I was both wrong and had serendipitously stumbled upon a working solution at the same time :huh:

Telling someone "There is no transparency on Window borders or the Taskbar in Windows 8 RTM..." Is wrong, but someone who was reading, might think you were right, and then tell someone. Therefor "misleading others".

  On 01/09/2012 at 20:07, Xerax said:

Telling someone "There is no transparency on Window borders or the Taskbar in Windows 8 RTM..." Is wrong, but someone who was reading, might think you were right, and then tell someone. Therefor "misleading others".

I didn't say that I wasn't wrong. I was wrong and of course that could be misleading.

You could simply say, "That's wrong", without an attack though. Not only was I not wrong because I "didn't know what I was talking about", the reason I was wrong was the solution.

It's just about common respect and manners, or as my grandfather used to say, decorum.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Posts

    • And cost of $0 for not using any of this garbage.
    • Save $500 on this 16-inch LG Copilot+ PC with Intel processor by Taras Buria These days, Windows laptops are separated into two categories: Copilot+ PCs and pretty much everything else. Copilot+ PCs offer more AI-powered features in Windows 11, some of which are quite useful, like semantic search, Recall, Windows Studio Effects, image editing capabilities, and more. If you are thinking about joining the ranks of Copilot+ PC users, check out this LG gram Pro laptop, which is currently available with a big $500 discount. This big laptop has a 16-inch IPS display with a 2,560 x 1,600 pixels resolution and variable refresh rate support from 31 to 144Hz, which is driven by Intel Arc Graphics. On the processor side, you get the second-generation Intel Core Ultra 7 chip, which qualifies for the Copilot+ PC program thanks to its 47 TOPS neural processing unit (NPU). There is also 16GB of LPDDR5X memory and a 1TB PCIe Gen4 SSD. Despite its size and performance, the LG gram Pro is very light and thin: only 2.73 lbs and 0.51". Additionally, the laptop offers a FullHD infrared camera with Windows Hello support, a backlit keyboard, Wi-Fi 7 support, and plenty of ports. The latter includes one HDMI, one headphone jack, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, and two USB 4 Gen3x2 Type-C with Thunderbolt 4 support with power delivery and image output. As for the battery, the LG gram Pro 16-inch packs a 77Wh battery, which, according to LG, can last up to 25.5 hours of video playback on a single charge (depending on your workflow, of course). LG gram Pro 16" Copilot+ PCs Intel Core Ultra 7 258V, 16GB, 1TB - $1,499.99 | 25% off This Amazon deal is US-specific and not available in other regions unless specified. If you don't like it or want to look at more options, check out the Amazon US deals page here. Get Prime (SNAP), Prime Video, Audible Plus or Kindle / Music Unlimited. Free for 30 days. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
    • all of mine computers at home updated so far zero issues, as always
    • OpenAI slashes o3 price by 80% in direct challenge to Gemini 2.5 Pro by Pradeep Viswanathan Back in April, OpenAI released o3, its flagship reasoning model, which delivered state-of-the-art (SOTA) results on several AI benchmarks, including Codeforces, SWE-bench, and MMMU. The o3 model also included support for external tools, such as web browsing, a Python interpreter, and more. Although o3 was the most powerful model available from OpenAI, it was not widely adopted by developers due to its pricing compared to other alternatives. Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro model offered nearly the same performance at one-quarter of the cost, while Anthropic’s Claude 3.7 models delivered better coding performance at a similar price. Today, OpenAI is responding to developer feedback by reducing the price of the o3 model by nearly 80%. At launch, the o3 model was priced at $10 per million input tokens and $40 per million output tokens. As of today, OpenAI is lowering the price to $2 per million input tokens and $8 per million output tokens. This price drop makes o3 a much more attractive option for developers. You can refer to the benchmark comparison table below, which Google published last week during the launch of the Gemini 2.5 Pro June update, to see how OpenAI’s o3 compares with other leading models. In addition to the price reduction, OpenAI is also launching o3 Pro, its new flagship reasoning model, later today. The o3 Pro model is expected to outperform the Gemini 2.5 Pro June update on several key AI benchmarks and may be priced at $10 per million input tokens and $40 per million output tokens.
    • From my understanding.... Thunderbolt isn't like USB ... where you can simply plug a couple of TB ports into the header.  The header itself isn't "Thunderbolt" ... the header connects to the add-on Thunderbolt I/O card for management. I'm sure Nik can better articulate...   ...helpful as always...
  • Recent Achievements

    • Reacting Well
      Alan- earned a badge
      Reacting Well
    • Week One Done
      IAMFLUXX earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Month Later
      Æhund earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • One Month Later
      CoolRaoul earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • First Post
      Kurotama earned a badge
      First Post
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      537
    2. 2
      ATLien_0
      277
    3. 3
      +FloatingFatMan
      216
    4. 4
      +Edouard
      206
    5. 5
      snowy owl
      140
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!