Aqua-Soft Forums
I've recently written a short tutorial on making start panel in your skin translucent. If you want to stay up to the speed in the ever improving world of customization, you may want to spend a minute reading it.
On how to make a per-pixel translucent start panes
i hate to like be evil, but that is one of the ugliest and biggest themes i have ever seen. being for windowblinds as well doesnt make it any better :-
// Lou
Guess you don't like World of Warcraft then 
This is just a sample I worked on, there are lots of other (probably better for you) themes on Wincustomize. Not all themes have to appeal to everyone.