Transparent Vista Start Menu???

T

technomann

New Member
Is the Start Menu in Vista Premium 64-bit supposed to be transparent? If so, mine is not, and I would prefer that it was. Is there some tweak that I am missing? I am running the Aero Glass desktop, but my Start Menu is still opaque. I have tried a dozen 3rd party programs, to no avail. WindowBlinds from Stardock wreaks havoc on my desktop settings. Does anyone have a clue as to how to make and desktop (and perhaps the right-click context menu) transparent?

Thanks for any and all assistance!
 

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are you talking about the taskbar or the start menu? the taskbar should be see through if you have aero enabled. run the windows experience index and make sure it's allowing aero to be used.

my start menu isn't see through..but i also have it set to classic. my right click context menus are also not see thru.
 

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I use Vista 32-bit with Aero and all (I don't think there's a difference as far as interface goes) and I don't have a transparent start bar, and the start menu is only very slightly transparent along the right side (I have transparency enabled, and the color intensity is very low, i.e. the transparency is very high).
Start menu before.jpg
But...

If you're talking about 3rd party apps, I use a nifty little program called AutoHotkey. It's got loads of functionality, transparency just one of the many (I have a shortcut set, I just made my entire start bar and the whole start menu transparent in one key press, each separately).
Start menu after.jpg
The thing is, it can be slightly advanced (writing scripts). But there are loads of ready made scripts out there, and they can even be compiled to exe's. It might be a little overkill for what you're looking for, but if you're interested, you can look into it, or ask/message me for suggestions.
 

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technomann said:
Is the Start Menu in Vista Premium 64-bit supposed to be transparent? If so, mine is not, and I would prefer that it was. Is there some tweak that I am missing? I am running the Aero Glass desktop, but my Start Menu is still opaque. I have tried a dozen 3rd party programs, to no avail. WindowBlinds from Stardock wreaks havoc on my desktop settings. Does anyone have a clue as to how to make and desktop (and perhaps the right-click context menu) transparent?

Thanks for any and all assistance!
Click to expand...

Hello technomann,
You might care to refer to this Tutorial -

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/75413-aero-glass-transparency.html
 

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If you're talking about 3rd party apps, I use a nifty little program called AutoHotkey. It's got loads of functionality, transparency just one of the many (I have a shortcut set, I just made my entire start bar and the whole start menu transparent in one key press, each separately).
View attachment 14982
The thing is, it can be slightly advanced (writing scripts). But there are loads of ready made scripts out there, and they can even be compiled to exe's. It might be a little overkill for what you're looking for, but if you're interested, you can look into it, or ask/message me for suggestions.[/QUOTE]

Thank you for this! What a cool little program. I tried it out and ran a custom script for transparency. It made all of my right-click context menus transparent, which was cool, but the Start Menu itself was unfortunately unaffected. Perhaps I haven't configured it correctly? I am using the Classic Start Menu with lots of custom folders up top.

Thanks again!
 

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When you have a program maximized it will be solid. ;)
 

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As someone else said, when you have a window maximized, the start bar will in fact be opaque, but as long as you haven't got a window maximized, it will be transparent, albeit rather subtle.
desktopmaximized.png
desktopminimized.png
 

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hi

any chance for Vista Home Basic users to make the taskbar and start Menu Transparent?
VaguelyRapt , your screeshots seems that you have a solution for it but when I checked Autohotkey it need to be very familiar with the script. Can you advice any solutions?

thanks
 

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