Spooky View LittleTijn

A small open-source app to make any app window transparent. Small and use minimal system resources.

README

Spooky View

A Windows application to make any window transparent.

System requirements

This application will run on Windows XP and newer.

Downloads

The application is available from the Microsoft Store and Github.

Microsoft Store

Github

https://github.com/littletijn/spooky-view/releases

When downloading from Github, make sure to choose the correct version.

• For 64-bits Windows, download the x64 version to make sure that x64 based apps can also be set transparent.
• For 32-bits Windows, download the x86 version. Use this version only on 32-bits computers.
• For Windows 10 or 11 Arm-based PCs, download the ARM64 version for the best performance.

Known issues

• WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) apps cannot be set transparent.
• When stopping Spooky View, some apps will not return opaque. Restart the affected apps to revert them.
• Only when Spooky View is run as administrator will it be able to make high privileges app transparent, like Windows Task Mananger.

FAQ

How do I enable automatic startup of Spooky View?

It depends on the installed version. When using the MSI or portable version:

• Start Spooky View.
• Right click on the icon of the app in the Notification Area.
• Click on the "Settings..." option in the menu.
• Check the option "Start program when this user logs in".
• Click on "OK" button to save the changes and enable automatic startup.

When downloaded from the Microsoft Store or using the MSIX version:

• Open the Settings app of Windows.
• Click the "Apps" category.
• Click on the "Startup" option.
• Set the slider to enabled for the Spooky View item in the list of apps.

How can I make high privileges apps (apps started as administrator) transparent?

When the app is installed from the Microsoft Store, MSIX or MSI:

• Find the app in the start menu.
• Right click on the app.
• Click on the "Run as administrator" option.

When the portable app is downloaded and extracted:

• Find the executable of the app (SpookyView_version_Portable.exe).
• Right click on the icon of the executable.
• Click on the "Run as administrator" option.

Building

This project can be build with Visual Studio 2022. Install the "Desktop Development with C++" workload and the "C++ Windows XP Support for VS 2017 (v141) tools" component. Open the Solution file "SpookyView.sln" and build the SpookyView project within.

License

Spooky View is licensed under the GNU GLP v3.0 or later. See the LICENSE file for more details.