A lightweight (uses a few MB of RAM and almost no CPU) utility that makes the Windows taskbar translucent/transparent on Windows 10 and Windows 11.
- Advanced color picker supporting alpha and live preview to change the taskbar’s color.
- Taskbar states (choose one – color can be customized on every state except Normal):
- Normal: Regular Windows style. (as if TranslucentTB was not running)
- Opaque: Tinted taskbar, without transparency.
- Clear: Tinted taskbar.
- Blur: Will make the taskbar slightly blurred. Windows 10 and Windows 11 build 22000 only.
- Acrylic: Will give the taskbar an appearance similar to Microsoft’s Fluent Design guidelines.
- Dynamic modes (these can be used together and each of them provides a taskbar state and color you can customize):
- Visible window: Will change the taskbar to a different appearance if a window is currently open on the desktop.
- Maximized window: Will change the taskbar to a different appearance if a window is currently maximised.
- Start opened: Will change the taskbar appearance when the start menu is opened.
- Search opened: Will change the taskbar appearance when the search menu (previously Cortana) is open.
- Task View opened: Will change the taskbar apperance when the Task View (previously Timeline) is open.
- On Windows 10, ability to show or hide the Aero Peek button depending on the currently active dynamic mode.
- On Windows 11, ability to show or hide the taskbar line depending on the currently active dynamic mode.
- Compatible with RoundedTB!
- Compatible with ExplorerPatcher!
You can download the program for free from the Microsoft Store and take advantage of its features like background auto-updates.
Alternatively, you can download TranslucentTB.appinstaller via the releases tab and open it to install the app.
A portable version of the app is also available on GitHub releases as TranslucentTB.zip, but this version only works on Windows 11.
If you want to get the latest bleeding edge build, you can grab it over at the Azure Pipelines page. Note that these builds may not work, or include features that are partially complete. Use at your own risk.
To add TranslucentTB to startup, check the “Open at boot” entry in the TranslucentTB tray icon’s context menu. If you are having issues or the entry in the context menu is grayed out, try applying the following registry changes:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
"EnableFullTrustStartupTasks"=dword:00000002
"EnableUwpStartupTasks"=dword:00000002
"SupportFullTrustStartupTasks"=dword:00000001
"SupportUwpStartupTasks"=dword:00000001
Portable versions can be added to startup by creating a shortcut to the executable in %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup.