How To Make Windows 10 Taskbar Transparent

Many users enjoy modifying their Windows 10 experience by changing user interface characteristics beyond what Microsoft intended. One popular mod is to make the Windows 10 taskbar completely transparent without any blur effects.

The built-in way
1. Press Windows key+ R to open up a Run box. Then, type ms-settings:personalization and hit Enter to open the Personalization menu.

2. In the Personalization menu, select Colors from the menu on the left-hand side.
3. In the Colors menu, scroll down to the More options menu and enable the toggle associated with Transparency effects.

As you can see, this built-in option only adds a slight degree of transparency which is unfortunate since a lot of users are left looking for a full transparency effect. Depending on the image that you’re using as a background, the difference might not even be noticeable.

If you’re looking for a way to make your taskbar transparent or translucent, you’ll be pleased to hear that there’s a number of third-party tools and registry hacks that will help you achieve this effect. Sure, every method involves a certain degree of tweaking, but it’s nothing too technical.
Keep in mind that whatever method you end up using, it’s important to set a background image that actually allows you to spot the differences. Setting images that are mostly composed of bright pictures are usually better.
Note: Since all the workarounds featured below are using different approaches, the visual effect might differ from method to method. Feel free to try them all for yourself or check out the screenshots taken by us in order to decide which method is closer to what you have in mind.
Method 1: Enhancing the taskbar transparency with a registry hack

1. Press Windows key+ R to open up a Run box. Then, type regedit and hit Enter to open Registry Editor.

2. In Registry Editor, use the left-hand side pane to navigate to 
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Advanced.
3. With the Advanced folder selected, right-click on the right- hand side panel and choose New > DWORD (32-bit) Value and name the newly created entry UseOLEDTaskbarTransparency.

4. Double-click on UseOLEDTaskbarTransparency, set the Base to Hexadecimal and the Value Data to 1.

5. After you hit OK, you can safely close Registry Editor.
6. Close the Registry Editor and press Windows Key+ R again. This time, type ms-settings:personalization, then select OK 

7. Select Colors and toggle Transparency effects to On if they aren’t already.

8. Restart your computer to ensure your changes are updated. If you still don't see the transparency, you may need to toggle Transparency effects off, then on again.
Method 2: Making the taskbar fully transparent using TranslucentTB
TranslucentTB is an user-developed tool that can be used to transform your taskbar into a totally transparent (or translucent) bar. Aside from Windows 10, this tool will also work with Windows 8 and Windows 7.
Note: Keep in mind that while we tested the tool yourself and found no issues with it, indie third-party tools like these are not properly tested and might not work properly on every build.
1. Visit this link and download the TranslucentTB zip file. Once the archive has been downloaded successfully, use an extraction tool like WinZip or WinRar to extract its contents somewhere convenable.
2. Navigate to the location where you extracted the contents of the archive and double click on TranslucentTB.exe. Immediately after you open it, you should notice that your taskbar has hanged to a translucent state.
3. The default state is translucent, but you can change it to a totally translucent state by going into your notification tray and right-clicking on the TranslucentTB icon. If you set it to clear, it will transform your taskbar into a totally transparent one.

Note: Keep in mind that if you leave it like this, you’ll have to open TranslucentTB everytime you start your computer in order to achieve a transparent or translucent effect. If you want the aesthetic change to become permanent, right-click on the TranslucentTB in the notification tray and click on Open at Boot.
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