I'd like to disable taskbar transparency in Windows 8 desktop. On Win7 disabling Aero was a hack to accomplish this goal, but this post from how-to-geek to disable Aero in Win7 & Vista no longer works in Windows 8. Is there another way to disable taskbar transparency in Windows 8 desktop?
Edit: On Win8 Aero was removed but the taskbar is transparent (the desktop background picture is slightly visible 'behind' the taskbar). When I'm using the taskbar to switch programs I don't like seeing artifacts 'bleeding-through', I find it distracting.
Best Answer
You can do it if you switch to the Aero lite theme, see How to Enable Hidden “Aero Lite” Theme in Windows 8 and Later? and How to disable transparency in Windows 8's taskbar?.
Open
C:\windows\resources\themes\*.theme
with notepad.Under the key
[VisualStyles]
change the pointer toAero.msstyles
to point toAeroLite.msstyles
.Save the file (you can't actually, so save it to another location).
Double click your
.theme
fileNow your Taskbar is no longer translucent:
To apply it on the current theme, see Will's answer below.
The downside of these approaches is that the Aero lite theme looks different (take a look at your minimize-restore-close buttons and etc) from the normal Windows 8 Aero theme.