TranslucentTB

With regards to the malware allegations, we have an Issue explaining our permissions use.

A lightweight (uses a few MB of RAM and almost no CPU) utility that makes the Windows taskbar translucent/transparent on Windows 10.

You can see examples of the customizations you can make in the images below:

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.
  • 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):
  • Dynamic Windows: Will change the taskbar to a different appearance if a window is currently maximised or visible.
  • Dynamic Start Menu: Will change the taskbar appearance when the start menu is opened.
  • Dynamic Cortana: Will change the taskbar appearance when Cortana (or the search menu if Cortana is disabled) is open.
  • Dynamic Timeline: Will change the taskbar apperance when the Timeline is open.
• Ability to show or hide the Aero Peek button depending on the currently active dynamic mode.
• Compatible with ExplorerPatcher!

You can see it in action here (short) and here (longer).

Download

You can download the program for free from the Microsoft Store and take advantage of its features like background auto-updates and settings sync.

If you prefer a classical download, you can do so via the releases tab.

If you want to get the latest bleeding edge build, you can grab it over at the Azure Pipelines page. Note that these build 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 it is grayed out, TranslucentTB startup has been disabled by your organization.

Donations

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

Security

Some antiviruses are over eager, so they might flag this program as malicious. IT IS NOT! Over 2M 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,
• @PFCKrutonium,
• 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.

Similar programs

If you are looking for something that modifies more than just the taskbar, there are several programs out there.

• Taskbar Tools is a similar program written in C#. However, it seems to be unmaintaned.
• TaskbarX can also change the taskbar appearance, but it lacks TranslucentTB's dynamic modes.

You may have seen similar translucency abilities from programs such as StartIsBack, Start10 and the now defunct Classic Shell. All of these are great programs, but I don't need the start-replacement features, so I wrote this. TranslucentTB also allows for more customizability over the taskbar with features such as Dynamic Windows, Dynamic Peek and Dynamic Start that these programs don't have. The storage and memory impact is also lesser.

License

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