Add Aero-like or Fluent-like titlebar blur and transparency.

[MishterKirby]

It would be cool and would make some apps (like Photos or Calculator) look more consistent if Win32 programs (like File Explorer) have Fluent titlebars. It would also make some programs, like the new Chromium Edge, look neat with blur and transparency on titlebar!

[jaimecbernardo]

Hi @MishterKirby ,

Could you please add more details to this suggestion? It's not too clear what it is. On Windows 10, "Settings" > "Colors" has the "Transparency effects" and an option to apply these settings to "Title bars and window borders", which applies blur and transparency to title bars.

In any case, the place to send general Windows suggestions would be through the Feedback Hub: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4021566/windows-10-send-feedback-to-microsoft-with-feedback-hub

[MishterKirby]

Of course. I would like something like Windows 7 has, where every title bar has Aero, but with fine-tuned controls. Something like Aero Glass for Win8.1+ does, but with Fluent design instead of Aero.

[crutkas]

Adding in Help wanted as this isn't part of our v1 push. Super cool idea and would love to see if someone would want to help add it in.

[crutkas]

@ow had some create images from his issue, #1235

Here's what that looked like, and what I'd love to see this project do (sans Sets)

A good example of this is how legacy Edge implements titlebars, which is what I'd love to see everywhere (and sadly, somehow isn't a part of New Edge):

[ihaydenng]

amazing idea, cant wait.

[MishterKirby]

I would like to implement this, but I have no idea how to start. Can someone point me the right way?

[ihaydenng]

Any progress?

[crutkas]

Any progress?

This is not something the core Powertoys team is focusing on at this time.

Please refer to our v1 strategy doc for what we are planning to release

[DavidB420]

I would like to implement this, but I have no idea how to start. Can someone point me the right way?

One way to possibly implement this is to inject the transparency code into the DWM process, sort of like how Glass8 implements an Aero Glass effect in Windows 8.x and 10

[ericpa06]

This would be awesome! Please, someone, implement this!

[keithpickering]

Are there any official plans to add this as a feature? The only apps that look any good on Windows 10 are the Metro/Modern/Fluent ones, or whatever they're calling it now. Win32 apps are the only reason anybody uses Windows, and nowadays they're lacking a basic feature of the OS's design language that was already previously available in 2006. It's pretty crazy that transparency was reintroduced to the UI years ago without reenabling it on the vast majority of apps, but if it's added to PowerToys I can at least pretend Microsoft makes sense

[Yilmaz4]

I want to see this in Windows 11. As this acrylic blur effect is coming to everywhere in both Windows 10 and 11, acrylic blur effect in titlebars is a big missing feature.

[keithpickering]

Microsoft saw my comment and it hurt their feelings so bad they decided to make an OS that actually looks good

[Jay-o-Way]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uh9643c2P6k

[RedCard1nal]

So here we are after the official Win11 release and it seems they implemented this...but only for the file explorer. All the other titlebars use a solid accent color.

[github-account1111]

So here we are after the official Win11 release and it seems they implemented this...but only for the file explorer. All the other titlebars use a solid accent color.

File Explorer isn't even acrylic in Windows 11. It puts the average of the wallpaper colors into the title bar and that's it. No matter what's behind it it's always the same color.

[Yilmaz4]

So here we are after the official Win11 release and it seems they implemented this...but only for the file explorer. All the other titlebars use a solid accent color.

File Explorer isn't even acrylic in Windows 11. It puts the average of the wallpaper colors into the title bar and that's it. No matter what's behind it it's always the same color.

We call that "Mica" which blurs your background image

[github-account1111]

It doesn't blur anything though:

The title bar is literally just dark green (because my wallpaper is green). Doesn't care that there's a full screen Edge behind it, doesn't care that none of the elements in Edge don't have any green in them.

[Yilmaz4]

It doesn't blur anything though:

The title bar is literally just dark green (because my wallpaper is green). Doesn't care that there's a full screen Edge behind it, doesn't care that none of the elements in Edge don't have any green in them.

It does, just not very noticeable.

[github-account1111]

It doesn't blur anything though: The title bar is literally just dark green (because my wallpaper is green). Doesn't care that there's a full screen Edge behind it, doesn't care that none of the elements in Edge don't have any green in them.

It does, just not very noticeable.

That's the wallpaper. Put it in front of a fullscreen Edge and screenshort that.

[Jay-o-Way]

So here we are after the official Win11 release and it seems they implemented this...but only for the file explorer. All the other titlebars use a solid accent color.

File Explorer isn't even acrylic in Windows 11. It puts the average of the wallpaper colors into the title bar and that's it. No matter what's behind it it's always the same color.

@github-account1111 https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/design/signature-experiences/materials

[github-account1111]

@Jay-o-Way thanks! That explains it. I kinda don't like it 😜 Sounds like an inferior version of acrylic.

Was it solely made to be less resource intensive? Because otherwise all it does is make the UI less unified.

[alanlivio]

I don't use transparency in my system. But I would like that the accent colour in the title should be the same as the app in dark mode. My idea is to avoid this colour difference:

So, what I did was use the same hex colour 202020 (common for dark mode apps) as a system accent colour. And I got this:

[Jay-o-Way]

Many apps have been updated in the mean time. Is this still an issue?

[epokuser]

Mica for everyone does it!