How to Enable or Disable Transparency in Windows 11

Here's how to enable or disable transparency in Windows 11. By default, they are enabled in Windows 11. It adds some fancy acrylic blur effect to a number of apps and components. For example, the Start menu, the Settings app,  taskbar, and context menus are all using the Fluent Design style with bits of transparency.

So, Windows 11 comes with the transparency effects out-of-the-box. However, you can disable them using one of the three methods.

When you turn off transparency, the context menu, Settings app, taskbar, and all its flyouts are opaque. Let's have a look at some screenshots.

Also, you may notice that with transparency disabled, the login screen won't apply acrylic blur to its background image.

If you don't like the current style of your Windows 11, you can turn on or off the transparency effects for what you want.

Enable or Disable Transparency in Windows 11

To enable or disable transparency effects in Windows 11, you can do the following.

1. Use the Settings app and toggle enable the Transparency Effects option.
2. Change an Accessibility Settings option under Visual effects.
3. Finally, apply a Registry tweak. The latter can be useful in certain scenarios.

Let's review all three methods in detail.

Enable or Disable Transparency in Windows 11 with Settings

1. Press Win + I to open the Settings app. You can also use an alternative method of opening it.
2. Navigate to Personalization > Colors.
3. On the left, disable the Transparency effects option. This will disable Transparency in Windows 11.
4. By enabling the same option, you will restore transparency effects for shell components and apps.

You are done.

Besides this obvious method, there are a few other options that you can use. For example, accessibility settings include a special switch that enables or disables transparency.

Disable Transparency in Windows 11 with Accessibility Settings

1. Right click the Start button and select Settings from its context menu.
2. Click the Accessibility item on the left.
3. On the right, click the Visual effects button.
4. Disable the Transparency effects toggle option to make the Windows and apps opaque.
5. You can later re-enable the same option to enable Transparency in Windows 11.

Done!

Finally, if the above is not enough, you can apply a Registry tweak for the same. Having a registry tweak will allow you to automate the appearance change for new user accounts, or for setting new devices to match your preferences.

Turn On or Off Transparency Effects in the Registry

1. Press Win + X on the keyboard and select Run from the menu.
2. Type regedit into the Run dialog to open the Registry editor app.
3. Navigate to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Personalize key.
4. In the right pane, modify or create a new 32-bit DWORD value named EnableTransparency.
5. Set it to 1 to enable transparency, or set it to 0 to disable transparency in Windows 11.

You can now close the Registry Editor.

Download REG Files

To save your time, I have prepared ready-to-use Registry files. Download this ZIP archive and extract its contents to any folder of your choice. You will get the following files.

• Disable transparency effects.reg turns off transparency.
• Enable transparency effects.reg - enables it back.

That's it.

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