Hi All,

I was wondering if anyone knew of a way to make the taskbar transparent.  Now hold on, before you guys start letting me know of all the different programs that will accomplish this, let me explain:  I'm wanting to make the taskbar [u]background transparent, not the fonts or icons - I want them to be fully opaque.  Neither TClock2 or Alpha XP Lite will accomplish this - I know, I've already downloaded them and tried.  They both make the entire taskbar transparent - including icons and fonts.  Any help would be greatly appreciated. I've been searching for a way to do this all day, and I'm just about to lose my mind over this    BTW, I'd just like to say that I think this is the best site I've visited, and believe me, I've been to a lot of sites.   I'm looking forward to being a part of this community, and if I can help anyone out there, I won't hesitate to do so.  Thanks guys, and keep up the great work.  This site ROCKS.

Hey Golfhack and welcome to CrystalXP  

Lol the main thing i have to say to you is "the Search button"
But to make a long story short all of the topics with this question come up with the same answer you have to use WindowsBilnds and get the windows vista skin for it

Aydin  

Thanks Aydin.   I appreciate the welcome.  Yeah I know, I heard about windowblinds being able to do that, but I'm kinda strapped for money right now, so I'm looking for a freware program that might be able to accomplish this.  I did notice that Glass2k can also make it transparent but I don't know if it would also make the fonts and icons transparent as well.  Anyone have any experience with this program?  I did read somewhere though that this could be accomplished by using photoshop and making the taskbar background bmp the same color as your wallpaper and then applying transparency.  But I don't even have photoshop    Anyways, thanks for the reply.

Charley

Hello and welcome Golfhack!  

If i understand what you want (because i'm french   )... you want the same effect of This desk' for your taskbar?

OMG,  yes thank you Gizzle for understanding what I'm trying to do.  VIVA LA FRANCE (or is it VIVA LE FRANCE).  That's exactly what I'm trying to accomplish.  Would it be possible for you to share with me how you did that.  PLEEEASE.

VIVE LA FRANCE  

Ok Golfhack, for do this effect [for your taskbar] you need to use this freeware (and english, cool for you!   ) Tranbar  

Nice, thank's for that Gizzle

I think it is Glass2K. Or WindowBlinds, but i'm sure that we can do the same with Glass2k. You have to right clik on the StartPanel and select your transparancy degree and do the same for taskbar in Glass2k's option.
Glass2k make all your window, your startpanel or your taskbar transparent with a personalized degree of transparancy. It's a really good soft if you don't want to buy WB
i'm sorry if there is some mistakes, but i'm french.
And we say "vive la france"

Ok: grilled, grilled et re-grilled

Thanks for the rapid reply Gizzle.  Strange...I checked out that program before but never used it, because their screenshot looks like the entire bar is transparent (including icons and fonts).  Hmmm...now that I think about it maybe your screenshot isn't exactly what I'm looking for.  For example, if you were to make your taskbar completely transparent, would you still be able to see the icons and fonts?  I guess, I should clarify myself:  I'm trying to make the taskbar background transparent and not the contents of the taskbar.  Geez, I hope you understand what I'm saying, cause I'm starting to confuse myself   But in the meantime I guess I could just download it and try it   I'll give it a shot and keep you posted.  Thanks again Gizzle

Wow, you guys were posting at the same time I was   Thanks Komm, I'll also give glass2k a try if transbar doesn't work.  I can't tell you guys how much I appreciate your help.  Unfortunately I don't have very much knowledge with creating graphics, but I have compiled a lot of knowledge on the programs you can use to customize a desktop.  On that note, I'd like to share my two favorite items i've  come across thus far that I think you'll enjoy using on your desktop.  Google yahoo widgets and go to their website.  Download the yahoo widget engine.  After you have that installed, go back to their site and click on galleries and search for WidgetDockMod and Informer.  Download both of these and install them into the engine.  Just to give you an idea of what I'm trying to accomplish with this whole transparent taskbar thing, if you set the informer to fully transparent you'll see that all the fonts are still 100% opaque.  Enjoy these are 2 really good programs and I think you'll get a kick out of them.

Hi Golfhack! if you want teh total same effect of my screenshot, you need to use "Transbar" and for the

"START menu" take this Yz-Shadow  

i have the transparent taskbar but the 'y-shadow' hogs ma CPU and makes ma PC really laggy    so i only have transarency.  

Richard,  

I have tranbar too and im having the same problem.I tried glass2k and tranparent TaskBar, but all of them makes the whole taskbar transparent(including the icons and letter etc).So basiclly i have the same problem as him, but i think have found a way to resolve this problem and this involes editing your wallpaper!It will not solve problem fully though!

This is a very old topic. Quite pointless in posting in these topics

then why you posted here?  

I have was trying to help.

Well since you've posted anyway now, I think that you may as well post your solution, so anyone else who has this problem will have another way of solving it.

But try not to bump topics

Here it is.
1. First take a picture of your desktop (without using a camera and with no windows on the screen) and save it.

2. Open the image with an image editing software like Adobe Photoshop and crop out everything except for the parts on the taskbar that you want to stay opaque.

3. Now copy your normal wallpaper into a new layer behind your edited picture of desktop.

4. Resize the picture to the size of your desktop (you can find out the size of the your desktop by right clicking on your mouse and select properties and in the properties window select the tab display settings and near the bottom there is a slider saying Resolution and under it show you the size of your desktop example 1024x768) and save it.

5. Apply the picture as your wallpaper and there you go!

Just to tell Freakmac to not post in old topics.

Yes, I know. But, in the future, try not to reopen old topics.
Thanks for the solution by the way. I have no use for it, since I don't use TransBar, but others might find it useful