How to disable taskbar transparency in Windows 8 desktop?

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.

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?.

1. Open C:\windows\resources\themes\*.theme with notepad.

2. Under the key [VisualStyles] change the pointer to Aero.msstyles to point to AeroLite.msstyles.

3. Save the file (you can't actually, so save it to another location).

4. Double click your .theme file

Now 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.

Note that if you have personalized your theme it will be located here:

C:\Users\[User]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Themes

I edited the file directly and it worked.