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I just installed Windows 10 the other day. I came from Linux and am surprised by how uncustomizable Windows is. I want to add more transparency to the taskbar, but I can't figure out how. Is it possible, and if so, how do I do it?

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3 Answers 3

Reset to default
8

You can use classic shell to do this. There's an option in there that will allow you to make the taskbar transparent to whatever level you want.

Procedure:

  1. Download and install Classic Shell (above link)
  2. Open 'Classic Start Menu Settings'
  3. Check the box labeled 'Show all settings'
  4. Click on the tab labeled 'Taskbar'
  5. Set a color and opacity

Note: you may want to remove some of the things Classic Shell does by default - doing so shouldn't be too difficult, just look around the settings.

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    Beware, because this one reportedly has been compromised some time ago.(reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/4vw21h/…, 2016-08).
    – miroxlav
    Dec 30, 2016 at 11:11
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    Ah yeah, don't worry about that anymore I believe it was recently fixed. I'm using it on my PC and had no issues.
    – illage4
    Dec 30, 2016 at 11:13
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    @illage4: That is not a sufficient debunking of a report of being compromised!
    – Lightness Races in Orbit
    Dec 30, 2016 at 16:59
  • This is the method I used and it worked great, and also gave me some other things to try out, thus this is the answer I've accepted. Thank you :)
    – cheesits456
    Dec 30, 2016 at 22:55
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    @LightnessRacesinOrbit: FossHub, the download mirror of Classic Shell was compromised, not the software itself. Now Classic Shell has switched to mediafire.
    – jingyu9575
    Dec 31, 2016 at 5:53
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Here are two ways to modify the registry to make the taskbar more transparent:

Method 1

  1. Click on the Start Menu and type regedit and hit Enter
  2. Navigate to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

  1. Right-click on the Advanced subkey in the left window pane
  2. Go down to New and select DWORD (32-bit) Value
  3. Name the new value UseOLEDTaskbarTransparency
  4. Now double-click on the value you just renamed
  5. In the new window enter 1 in the Value Data field
  6. Click OK and then reboot your PC

Method 2

If you don't feel like doing it manually through the registry, you can use a Taskbar Transparency Hack (.reg file) from howtogeek.com that does the exact same thing descrived above but this way you just have to double-click the .reg file contained in the zip download and it will import the key automatically. You will need to reboot after doing this method as well.

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    Instead of rebooting, you can also press Win+I and go to Personalisation > Colours and toggle off/on any of the colour settings (this will save into the registry and considers the new value that you created in there).
    – CPHPython
    Dec 30, 2016 at 18:29
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    This is the most useful answer as this does not involve any 3rd party software.. +1
    – Vaibhav Garg
    Jan 3, 2017 at 16:33
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I use StartIsBack++ to have more control over the taskbar. In the StartIsBack++ options you can make Taskbar transparent and add blur

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to it like in Windows 7

enter image description here

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