Solved Can I make my Gadgets opacity 0% ?

[ahamprema]

Would like to know if there is any way to make my gadgets 0% opaque until I mouse over them because I like to see a clean desktop and my wallpaper unobstructed? Anyone know a way to do this?

Thanks WSF

 

[Darryl Licht]

0% would be invisible!

 

[D3ftOn3Z]

I don't see the point of having a gadget with the opacity set to 0%. Better off, don't use any gadgets.

 

[not so gray matter]

I dont know of a method to switch from 0% to 100% on mouseover, but here's the opacity:

1. Right-click a gadget.
2. Point at Opacity.
3. Select the amount of opacity.

 

[BrettM WinTeam]

Give this a shot

As the opacity setting is intergrated in the gadget, it's hard to change to 10% or 5% via the opacity setting. I found an useful link for you,

Let The User Choose Your Gadget's Opacity
Let The User Choose Your Gadget's Opacity - Google Desktop APIs - Google Code

After reading this website, you should know it's hard to modify the opacity setting to 10% unless you modify the program codes. While if you just want to decrease to less opaque, you can choose 90% or 100% in the opaque setting.

I hope this can help you.

Brett M,
Windows Outreach Team

 

[ahamprema]

Thanks Everyone, & Brett for the link. I would like to make the opacity 0% I read the link and went to where the gadgets are but can't see the info that they show in the link may be a little out of my league unless someone can explain what I need to do. I have been working on the visual appearance of my laptop and love the glass as you can see. This is one of the few tasks felt I would love to incorporate. Thanks again everyone for you support and to all the artist who assisted in creating my style!!!

 

[Airbot]

I think I remember reading somewhere that windows sidebar gadgets don't allow for 0 opacity (complete transparency). If it's true or not, can't say as I don't have a clue where I read that before. Even if it was possible, you'd have to get into the individual gadgets code, and change it yourself. I haven't seen any instructions anywhere on how to get complete transparency with sidebar gadgets.

Might look into using something like rainmeter instead, where you get different skins that have things like clocks, dates, weather, news, processes, drive capacities, etc that just show the information on your desktop and no backgrounds. And also has he ability to change the transparency of the displayed information on your desktop.
Rainmeter.net

 

[ahamprema]

Ok just to be clear YES anything is possible and YES I woulld like to make my gadgets 0% opaque. Does anyone have the knowledge, links or skills to pull this off. I would love to do it myself but it may be beyond my belief and skills that make it possible for me. Anyhoo This can't be that hard it looked farely easy from the link Brett provided I was just not sure from the article where the file was located that needed to be changed, the info seems to present it as being easy enough.

 

[Airbot]

The link he gave you is for google desktop, not windows sidebar gadgets.

 

[ahamprema]

Thanks Airbot that would explain alot....

 

[WP62]

If you are still looking for a way to do this, see this article by Jack Wallen on TechRepublic:

How do I make Windows 7 desktop gadgets visible on mouse-over only? | Microsoft Windows | TechRepublic.com

It provides all necessary steps and can be done in a couple of minutes. If this is being done for multiple gadgets, make sure that you reset the GadgetOpacity to "1" for each gadget in the settings.ini file.

 

[nkapalavai]

function setGadgetOpacity(opacity)
{
System.Gadget.Settings.write("PrivateSetting_GadgetOpacity", opacity);
}

call that function from anywhere in the gadget javascript file
setGadgetOpacity('0');

 

[whs]

I think I remember reading somewhere that windows sidebar gadgets don't allow for 0 opacity

Right, 20% is the lowest opacity. But that is nearly invisible.