How to Increase the Transparency of Windows 10 Start Menu and Taskbar

The Windows 10 Taskbar and Start menu are transparent by default, but you might want to add even more transparency. Here’s a Registry tweak to do just that.

Windows 10 allows limited control over the transparency of the Taskbar, Action Center, and the Start menu. You can make it transparent or solid in Settings. It is a bit transparent by default, but you might want to add a higher level. Here’s a look at how to increase the transparency by hacking the Registry.

Increase Windows 10 Start Menu Transparency

First, use the keyboard shortcut Windows Key + R and type: regedit and hit Enter or click OK.

Next, navigate to the following path:

HKEY_CURRENT _USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Personalize

From there, double click on EnableTransparency and change its value from 1 to 0 and click OK.

No restart is required. In fact, after changing the value to zero hit the Windows Key and you’ll see the difference. If you’re not a fan of the look just change the EnableTransparency key back to a value of one.

Here is what the default transparency looks like:

And here it is after changing the registry value — much more transparent:

Increase the Transparency of the Windows 10 Taskbar

If you want to change the transparency of the Taskbar, head to the following path in the Registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

Now you need to create a new DWORD 32-bit value and name it UseOLEDTaskbarTransparency and give it a value of 1.

To force the change, go to Settings > Personalization > Colors and toggle the Make Start, taskbar and action center transparent switch off and back on again.

Here’s what it looks like by default:

And here is what to expect after making the changes to the Registry:

It would be nice to see a slider control in Settings that would allow you to fine-tune the transparency. Something like the slider for color temperature for the Night Light (formerly called Blue Light) feature in Windows 10 Creators Update.

Still, this is a cool trick to give a try if you like to have more control over how the Windows UI looks. Give it a try and let us know what you think in the comment section below.