How to make taskbar more transparent in Windows 10

Solution 1:

You can use classic shell to do this. There's an option in there that will allow you to make the taskbar transparent to whatever level you want.

Procedure:

  1. Download and install Classic Shell (above link)
  2. Open 'Classic Start Menu Settings'
  3. Check the box labeled 'Show all settings'
  4. Click on the tab labeled 'Taskbar'
  5. Set a color and opacity

Note: you may want to remove some of the things Classic Shell does by default - doing so shouldn't be too difficult, just look around the settings.

Solution 2:

Here are two ways to modify the registry to make the taskbar more transparent:

Method 1

  1. Click on the Start Menu and type regedit and hit Enter
  2. Navigate to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

  1. Right-click on the Advanced subkey in the left window pane
  2. Go down to New and select DWORD (32-bit) Value
  3. Name the new value UseOLEDTaskbarTransparency
  4. Now double-click on the value you just renamed
  5. In the new window enter 1 in the Value Data field
  6. Click OK and then reboot your PC

Method 2

If you don't feel like doing it manually through the registry, you can use a Taskbar Transparency Hack (.reg file) from howtogeek.com that does the exact same thing descrived above but this way you just have to double-click the .reg file contained in the zip download and it will import the key automatically. You will need to reboot after doing this method as well.