How to Make Taskbar Translucent or Fully Transparent in Windows

Now, sit comfortably to learn how to make the taskbar translucent or fully transparent in Windows because today we're going to tell you all about it.

The see-through or clear options available in Windows simply do not work all the time. If the taskbar is remaining solid, not even when the settings that make it transparent are turned on, then this may happen. The reason for this is quite straightforward; Windows' transparency effect is just not fully transparent. It could be that in some instance, it doesn't work because of an update to Windows, graphic drivers, or display settings. 

Built-in way

Under "Personalization," you need to be able to turn on "Transparency effects" in Windows. This is quite reliable and easy, with no additional software installation, to partially give the taskbar a see-through look. 

Type "ms-settings:personalization" in the Run window, which opens with Windows + R, and press Enter.

Colors is in the left-hand submenu of the Personalization menu.

Look for the "More options" section in the Colors menu and turn on the toggle under "Transparency effects."

By default, this option sets transparency to a minimum, which is a bummer since most people would think that would finally mean full transparency. It could be so tiny that the difference would not show up if it were used as a background image.

There are a bunch of registry hacks and third-party apps available that will make the taskbar translucent or transparent, so if that's what you're looking for, consider yourself in luck. Naturally, each of these methods has a bit of tweaking involved, but it's not too bad.

Check out related: How to Change Taskbar Color.

1. Increase the taskbar transparency via a registry hack

The taskbar can be made transparent by editing the Windows registry, which can result in the taskbar being somewhat thinner as compared to its default setting for a more glassy kind of effect. 

Remember not to edit unauthorized parts of the registry since serious damage may occur to your system.

In the Registry Editor's left pane, locate the key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Explorer Advanced. 

Open the Advanced folder, right-click on the right-pane, and click New to create a new DWORD 32-bit value. Name the new entry UseOLEDTaskbarTransparency. 

Double-click UseOLEDTaskbarTransparency, click Base > Hexadecimal > Value Data = 1. 

Click OK to close the Registry Editor.

The results are not visible yet. Open the Run box via Windows key + R, then click "ms-settings:personalization" to follow on. 

Colors is one of the options on the left-hand submenu of Personalization. Once in More Options, click in the boxes beside Start, taskbar, action center, and title bars to turn the transparency effects on.

Note that for some of the options, you will need to toggle them off and then back on since they are already on.

For the changes to take effect, restart your PC. You will notice more transparency, which although may still seem a little bit lacking to some.

To make it more open, follow Methods 2 and 3.

2. Completely Transparent Taskbar with TranslucentTB

If you're looking for more transparent options than Windows allows, turn to the third-party utility TranslucentTB. In fact, with this utility, you can have the taskbar vanish entirely if you prefer a clean look. This tiny, background-running utility allows you to adjust the taskbar's level of transparency on the fly.

The TranslucentTB zip can be downloaded from this link. Once downloaded, open the archive with an extractor program such as WinZip or WinRar, and move its contents to a safe place. 

Now find the extracted file and run TranslucentTB.exe by double-clicking on it. In an instant, you should see that your taskbar becomes see-through.

The default state can be changed to fully transparent if necessary. This will make the taskbar invisible, and you will only need to right-click the TranslucentTB icon in the system tray and click "Clear."

Important: If you want this setting to stick, open the TranslucentTB option in the boot menu right-clicking it in the system tray. Otherwise, open the TranslucentTB whenever your computer boots.

Scroll down to Method 3 if you want to use another means of making the taskbar transparent.

3. Completely Make Taskbar Transparent Using TaskbarTools

By default, Windows only has an on and off setting for transparency of the taskbar. With TaskbarTools, you will be able to manually change the transparency of the taskbar freely, and you can even go all the way to making it fully transparent if you want. This extends the very limited native functionality within Windows for changing the taskbar's transparency by making it even more transparent.

Download the latest release from here and extract the ZIP by clicking it.  

Extract the archive in an accessible folder, for example via WinZip, WinRar or a similar decompression tool.  

Start TaskbarTool by double-clicking the executable after unpacking the folder.

In a moment, a window will pop up titled Taskbar Tools, now play around with a number of the various accent states to derive one that you might like working with. Try mixing Accent State with Gradient Colors.

Note: Before you click the Options button, put a checkmark in the boxes for Start Minimized, Apply Settings When Started, and Start with Windows. That will save your TaskbarTools settings.

We at tech-recipes hope we have been of the greatest help with our guide on How to Make Taskbar Translucent or Fully Transparent in Windows.