How to Make Taskbar Transparent in Windows

When it comes to Windows aesthetics, Microsoft has always made customization options available to tweak the operating system’s appearance to your taste. And speaking of the operating system’s appearance, there is a little touch of transparency to the taskbar at the bottom of the screen.

If that’s not enough and you’ll like to shoot the transparency up or ultimately enable it if you don’t have it in the first place, you’ll find the tutorial here helpful.

I have detailed a step-by-step guide on how to enable transparency via Windows Settings or customize the taskbar transparency via Windows Registry Editor. Read on below to find out!

How to Make Your Taskbar Transparent

Method 1: Enable in Windows Settings

If you don’t have the transparency effects at all on your taskbar, you can use the method to enable it on your PC. Otherwise, if what you need is a beefier control over your taskbar transparency, skip to the second method below in this guide. 

To use this method,

• Press Windows key + R to launch the Run command
• Type of paste ms-settings: personalization in the provided text box and click OK
• You’ll immediately find yourself in the Personalization menu in Windows settings. Navigate to and click Colors under it
• In the Colors pane on the right, select the Transparency Effects toggle to enable transparency effects on your taskbar

You should be able to see the transparency effects on your taskbar when you go back to the desktop now. The transparency theming will change based on the wallpaper on your desktop.

Method 2: Edit Level of Transparency with Registry Editor

This hidden method with the Registry Editor allows you to enhance the taskbar transparency, so it’s the way to go if you’d fair better with a more obvious level of transparency than the default one. To use this method,

• Press Windows key + R to launch the Run command again
• Type Regedit in the provided text box
• You’ll find yourself in the Registry Editor window. On the left-hand pane, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Advanced
• Once you’ve clicked the Advanced folder, navigate to the right-hand panel and right-click anywhere there
• Select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value
• In the mini window that pops up next, type UseOLEDTaskbarTransparecncy in the text box under Value Name
• Next, set the Value Date to 1 and Base to Hexadecimal
• Click Ok to save all changes

Once you’ve applied this method, you should be able to see some visible changes in the level of transparency on your taskbar. If you can’t see these changes yet, go to Personalization under Windows settings again with the steps in the previous method. But this time, when you get to the step where you’ll toggle the Transparency Effects, ensure to tick-mark the following:

• Start, Taskbar, and Action Center

• Title Bar

Final Notes

When it comes to taskbar transparency, the type of wallpaper you use plays a crucial role in making a difference. With dark wallpapers, you’d barely notice any difference. Therefore, it’s advisable to use brighter wallpapers to spot the difference in transparency. Most importantly, you might want to reboot Windows after applying the methods above to allow the changes to manifest.

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Ganiu Abdurahman

Ganiu is an astute technical writer with a special interest in gaming and Cryptocurrency. He is a PlayStation enthusiast whose passion lies in writing problem-solving articles.

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