How to disable taskbar transparency in Windows 8 desktop?

Question

I'd like to disable taskbar transparency in Windows 8 desktop. On Win7 disabling Aero was a hack to accomplish this goal, but this post from how-to-geek to disable Aero in Win7 & Vista no longer works in Windows 8. Is there another way to disable taskbar transparency in Windows 8 desktop?

Edit: On Win8 Aero was removed but the taskbar is transparent (the desktop background picture is slightly visible 'behind' the taskbar). When I'm using the taskbar to switch programs I don't like seeing artifacts 'bleeding-through', I find it distracting.

score 17 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:17

You can do it if you switch to the Aero lite theme, see How to Enable Hidden “Aero Lite” Theme in Windows 8 and Later? and How to disable transparency in Windows 8's taskbar?.

Open C:\windows\resources\themes\*.theme with notepad.
Under the key [VisualStyles] change the pointer to Aero.msstyles to point to AeroLite.msstyles.
Save the file (you can't actually, so save it to another location).
Double click your .theme file

Now your Taskbar is no longer translucent:

screen image showing taskbar

To apply it on the current theme, see Will's answer below.

The downside of these approaches is that the Aero lite theme looks different (take a look at your minimize-restore-close buttons and etc) from the normal Windows 8 Aero theme.

score 9 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 08 '16 at 20:43

9

Note that if you have personalized your theme it will be located here:

C:\Users\[User]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Themes

I edited the file directly and it worked.

edited Apr 08 '16 at 20:43

Kevin Panko

7,466

answered Mar 14 '13 at 19:01

will stone

111

score 5 · Answer 3 · edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:17

5

Edit of previous version.

This doesn't actually fully work. Windows that are moved to slide under the taskbar are still visible. This bothers me every time I see it, so I'll continue to seek a complete fix (to turn off transparency for the desktop taskbar in Windows 8).

edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:17

Community

1

answered Aug 23 '12 at 13:45

yzorg

785

score 5 · Answer 4 · edited Feb 20 '15 at 12:08

The Stardock utility Start8 (shareware: http://www.stardock.com/products/start8/download.asp ) has an option to disable the taskbar transparency.

It can be found under the "Desktop" section of Start8's settings.

Start8 options

It looks like it follows your window color, not the weirdness that happens with the registry edits above. It also let me disable the hot corners and several other places Metro pops up, which is a godsend for me.

score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 26 '12 at 12:38

3

I have the same problem on Windows 8 Pro. MY SOLUTION: I re-edited my wallpaper image in paint and matched it with a screenshot to add a section of white to sit behind the taskbar. Problem is still present, but is no longer visible.

answered Nov 26 '12 at 12:38

Henry Cassells

31

score 3 · Answer 6 · edited Jun 25 '15 at 01:46

3

Opaque Taskbar for Windows 8 seems to do the job and it looks like they are using Desktop Window Management APIs to do this (not some registry/theme hack)
http://winaero.com/comment.php?comment.news.199

enter image description here

edited Jun 25 '15 at 01:46

Pacerier

28,143

answered Feb 23 '13 at 08:31

mdonatas

141
5

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Dec 16 '19 at 08:55

1

If you got Classic Menu Start just enable this options

answered Dec 16 '19 at 08:55

user956584

396

score 1 · Answer 8 · edited Sep 17 '12 at 18:00

1

There is unfortunately no way to do this as of now.

edited Sep 17 '12 at 18:00

Nifle

34,998

answered Aug 22 '12 at 04:28

user153762

27

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Feb 24 '15 at 15:50

Try installing a start button option. I use "Classic Shell Start Menu" which includes among other things, change settings you can't find anywhere else in win 8. Its a must have if you like the classic start button, and especially if you have win8 without a touch screen. In this program, you right click the button and go to the win 8.1 settings tab.It's right there.

How to disable taskbar transparency in Windows 8 desktop?

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