TranslucentTB Charles Milette

TranslucentTB

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.

Features

• 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!

Screenshots

Download

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.

Add to Startup

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.

Donations and contributions

We have a Liberapay! Don't hesitate to donate if you appreciate TranslucentTB and would like to support our work.

If you want to contribute to the source code, we have a how-to contribute guide.

Security

Some antiviruses are over eager, so they might flag this program as malicious. IT IS NOT! Over 10M users have downloaded this program safely. The source is open, you can compile it yourself, and we welcome any and all security reviews.

Thanks

TranslucentTB is a team effort! It is the result of the collective efforts of many people:

• @ethanhs,
• @sylveon,
• @MrAksel,
• @denosawr,
• and last but not least, all of our contributors!

Thanks to @dAKirby309 for making the icon! You can find more of his stuff on his DeviantArt profile.

License

This program is free (as in speech) software under the GPLv3. Please see the license file for more.