Transparency - Enable Full Clear Glass Transparency

How to Enable "Full Clear Glass Transparency" in Windows 7​

   Information

By default when you enabled transparency in Windows 7, the transparency will be blurred a bit in the window borders. This will show you how to have the window borders fully clear and transparent like glass instead for your current account only, or for all user accounts on the computer.

The Windows 7 Starter and Home Basic editions do not have Aero Transparency included in them.

   Note

This will not make the taskbar clear, on window borders. One side effect though is that when you have a window border with text on top of another window with text, the text will tend to overlap each other since the window is clear instead of with a opaque (blurred) background.

   Warning

You will only be able to apply this while logged in an administrator account.

You will not have the Transparency option if you have a Basic and High Contrast Theme instead of a Aero Theme.

Aero Requirements to be Enabled in Windows 7:
NOTE: If Aero is not enabled, then Transparency will not work even when enabled.

• 1 GHz 32-bit or 64-bit processor
• 1 GB of system memory
• Support for DirectX 9 graphics with 128 MB memory (in order to enable Aero theme)
• You must be have True Color (32 bit) set instead of High Color (16 bit).
• The desktop composition and Animate controls and elements inside windows options need to be enabled in Visual Effects.
• The Desktop Window Manager Session Manager and Themes Services need to be set as Started and Automatic.
• Refresh or update your WEI score. You will need an WEI score minimum of 2.0 in both Graphics & Gaming graphics in order for Aero to be activated.

EXAMPLE: Full Clear Transparency and Default Blurred Transparency
NOTE: Notice how the Computer window borders are completely transparent when this is enabled.

STEP ONE

Replace System Files to Make this Work

NOTE: Credit goes to LFB for this addition. Thank you LFB. 1. Click on the Download button below to download the DWM_32-bit_7127.zip or DWM_64-bit_7127.zip file for your 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) Windows 7 version. For 32-bit Windows 7:

Download



For 64-bit Windows 7:

Download


2. Click on Save, and save the .zip file to the desktop.

3. Open the .zip file and extract (drag and drop) the dwm.exe and uDWM.dll files to the desktop.

4. Right click on each the dwm.exe and uDWM.dll files (one at a time) on the desktop and click on Properties, General tab, the Unblock button, and on OK. (See screenshots below)
NOTE: If you do not have a Unblock button under the General tab, then the shortcut is already unblocked and you can continue on to step 5.
5. Stop the Desktop Windows Manager Session Manager Service. (See screenshot below)
6. In Windows Explorer, navigate to and make a backup copy of the original C:\Windows\System32\dwm.exe and C:\Windows\System32\uDWM.dll files at these locations. (See screenshots below)
NOTE: You will need these backups if you ever would like to restore them.



7. In Windows Explorer, take ownership and give yourself full permission of the C:\Windows\System32\dwm.exe and C:\Windows\System32\uDWM.dll files at these locations. (See screenshots above)

8. Copy and Paste the dwm.exe and uDWM.dll files on the desktop into the C:\Windows\System32 folder.

9. Select Copy and Replace and approve the replacement of these default files with the downloaded ones.
NOTE: If you ever run a sfc /scannow command, it will consider these as modified files, and will replace them with the default ones. You'll have to do this tutorial again to have the full clear transparency back.

10. Start the Desktop Windows Manager Session Manager Service. (See screenshot below step 5)

11. Do either OPTION ONE or OPTION TWO below.

OPTION ONE

For Current User Account Only

1. To Enable Current User Full Transparency A) Click on the Download button below to download the file below. Enable_Current_User_Full_Transparency.reg

Download


B) Go to step 4.
2. To Undo Current User Full Transparency A) Click on the Download button below to download the file below. Undo_Current_User_Full_Transparency.reg

Download


3. Save the .reg file to the desktop.

4. Right click on the downloaded .reg file, and click on Merge.

5. Click on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK when prompted.

6. Log off and log on, or restart the computer to apply.

7. When done, you can delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.

OPTION TWO

For All User Accounts

1. To Enable All Users Full Transparency A) Click on the Download button below to download the file below. Enable_All_Users_Full_Transparency.reg

Download


B) Go to step 4.
2. To Undo All Users Full Transparency A) Click on the Download button below to download the file below. Undo_All_Users_Full_Transparency.reg

Download


3. Save the .reg file to the desktop.

4. Right click on the downloaded .reg file and click on Merge.

5. Click on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK when prompted.

6. Enable Transparency and adjust the color intensity to the far left in all user accounts on the computer.
NOTE: The current user account will have transparency enabled and color intensity adjusted automatically with this download, but any other user accounts on the computer will need to enable transparency to prevent a blending affect in the window borders.

7. Log off and log on, or restart the computer to apply.

8. When done, you can delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.
That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Enable or Disable Windows 7 Transparency
• How to Have Firefox with Glass Transparency in Windows 7

 

[pestbest]

Personally, I feel that the blurred glass transparency is more warm and appealing. It just feels more nice even though I don't know why. When a Window is open, seeing my Desktop Icon with Full Clear Glass Transparency feels irky. Thanks for the share anyways. Hopefully I will feel like changing to it after Blurred Clear Glass feels boring.

 

[Brink]

Hello Pestbest,

Yeah, it's just another one of those fun options to keep things interesting.

 

[dannykard]

It's just me... Or this must be fixed?

 

[Orbital Shark]

I like the full transparency, top notch Shawn, just a shame there's no registry edit to make explorer fully transparent. E.G. The white background where the icons reside

 

[Brink]

It's just me... Or this must be fixed?

Hello Daniel,

I'm not sure what you are referring to in the image. If you mean how long the address bar is, then you can adjust how long you want it to be instead.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3339-windows-explorer-address-search-bar-change-size.html

 

[dannykard]

Hello Dannykard,

I'm not sure what you are referring to in the image. If you mean how long the address bar is, then you can adjust how long you want it to be instead.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3339-windows-explorer-address-search-bar-change-size.html

Hello Brink, first of all I would like to congratulate you by this tutorial, it's just amazing .
And second of all I have some (for example) words problems, to explain, please open your browser go to Google, now please open another page (not tab it must be a page) and go to Bing. Maximize the web pages and now look at the title.
Don't you see any problem like mine? (On the picture).
Or please open your Computer and Music and put it on the same position, one under the other.
Do you see any problem or it's just me?

Thanks,
Daniel Cardoso

 

[Airbot]

Hi Daniel,


That's the price you'll pay for having this option enabled. It can get somewhat confusing with having the text bleed through from one window to another. That's mostly why the transparency is opaque by default, so the text doesn't bleed thru like that. If you have this option enabled, you will have to get used to the text overlay, there's no way to fix that except to not have this option enabled.

 

[dannykard]

OK Thanks a lot

 

[Brink]

Daniel,

Yeah, as Aaron posted, since it is clear, text will tend to overlap like that and appear jumbled if on top of each other.

 

[dannykard]

That's ok It's excellent anyway

Thanks for the tutorial,
Daniel Cardoso

 

[streetwolf]

Somewhat related to the topic, to get rid of those slanted stripes that appear on the title bar when you have Aero on go into the Registry and change:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWMColorizationGlassReflectionIntensity

to a lower value. Zero will get rid of the stripes while a lower number will make them less obvious.

This takes affect after a reboot or you could stop then restart DWM.

 

[Brink]

Thank you Streetwolf. I have not noticed any slanted stripes yet, at least for me though.

 

[Airbot]

These here Shawn, they're really hard to see.




Sort of like the stripes you get when you hover over the Show Desktop button, except it's there in the window borders.

Although I set it to zero in the registry and it took them away completely after I logged off/on, it reset itself to 50 when I rebooted.

 

[Brink]

Oh ok, thank your Aaron. Since you can barely notice them, I had though that they were just part of the window behind it bleeding through.

 

[Airbot]

Yeah, you can move the window around to see them a little better while you're moving it, it makes it truly transparent when getting rid of them, but the registry change for the stripes didn't seem to stay changed for me. :huh:

 

[LFB]

some seven builds don't have the hideblur Available...

you have to replace the dwm.exe and uDWM.dll for enable again...

i did in the 7260 rtm...

dowmload both files here:
Deposit Files

here how to:

Replace the files on c:\windows\system32\

In order to replace and overwrite dwm.exe and uDWM.dll in Windows 7 system, firstly take ownership and grant full access permissions to the files, and then stop the Desktop Windows Manager Session Manager service in Control Panel -> System and Security -> Administrative Tools -> Services module. Copy the dwm.exe and uDWM.dll to %systemdrive%\Windows\System32 folder

 

[streetwolf]

The 'stripes' thingy is very noticeable on my system. Perhaps it the choice of color you use.

There are circumstances where the Reg entry will be reset back to 50. Changing themes will do it and I think changing colors will do it too. There's probably other ways too. I suppose some things that reset DWM.

 

[Brink]

Aaron, did you change colors or anything as Streetwolf described above before it reset for the stripes?

 

[Legacy Code]

Hi Brink thanks for the tuts , they are really easy to follow and are helping me out heaps

I have a question for you ...

When you maximise a window it isn't really transparent is it ? by that i mean if you have a dream playing on your desktop in W7 (Vista as well) it stops and Windows takes a snap shot of the background and uses it.

Any way to make it truly transparent and show a live preview of the desktop ? I know its an odd request , i just like the idea of it...im sure other people will disagree with me lol.

Thanks.