Transparent Windows

Hi everybody.

I’ve been reading this forum for a while now, but never posted anything.

I don’t know if this been posted before, and in that case I apologize. I did a quick search and didn’t find anything…

Anyway, I’ve just discovered a way to get transparent windows, menus and taskbar without the need of additional software.

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All you need is an nvidia-based graphics card and detonator4x.xx drivers that include NView. I’ve tested this on the latest drivers (44.03), but I think it should work with older version too.

Btw, I’m using a Swedish version of the drivers, so all the names are just translations, which may be wrong. Hopefully it shouldn’t be too hard to understand it despite the errors.

Before we begin, I just wanna say that I don't take any responsibility for anything that might go wrong. You’re doing this on your own risk.

Here we go then, start by activating Nview:

Display Properties --> Settings --> Advanced --> Geforce --> Desktop tools --> Activate Nview

Then click on the button to the right of the checkbox (Configure/Advanced?). Make sure that Nview is activated (if not, then all tabs will be greyed out). Click on the Effects tab, in there are several options, one of them is a transparency setting. Here it’s possible to activate transparent taskbar, menus and transparent moving of windows.

Set transparency to a setting that fits you (mine is 30%). If it’s greyed-out, then activate transparent taskbar, set the transparency and disable transparent taskbar, if you don’t want it that is. Now, click on the “Shortcut keys” tab. Find “switch transparency”, click on “add” and assign a shortcut key of your choice.

Then you’re done. Click on “Apply”, and try out the shortcut-key for transparency. Hopefully, the current window should become transparent.

In the “Programs” tab, you can assign individual Nview-settings to different programs. Should a certain program window be transparent at startup? Be visible on all desktops? Just add a program (or a window-class) and enter the setting you like…

Now, Nview has some more cool futures. One of them is “minimize to titlebar”. It basically hides the whole window leaving one the titlebar visible. There is only one drawback though. It can only be activated be adding an ugly button on all windows, and there is now way to bind a key to this action. You can activate this (among other UI-enhancements) in the “User Interface tab”.

There is also support for virtual desktops, just like MS Desktop Manager (included in MS Powertoys) and a zoom-window which is exactly what is sound like – a window that zooms in on the part of the desktop where your cursor is.

Comments and suggestions are welcome, and sorry for my bad english - it's not my native language

Happy tweaking...

/Cosmo

#27538

see thats the thing wfx has as well. Exactly the same.

Wfx also includes shadows so its cool cause its already in memory.

Acheiving transparent windows isnt that of a difficult task and aint hip anymore, its basically whether its looking similar to the osx or not.

Check out THIS THREAD for the latest thing in mimicing the osx GUI transperacy. Its in early versions, but already kicking ass and proving to burst out with an osx like potential.

Thank you cosmo!

#27540

I'm aware of wfx and iblend, and the fact that "transparacy ain't hip anymore". However, wfx isn't free and iblend didn't work very well for me, and it used more memory then Nview.

If you have a geforce then its possible to achive transparacy without any additional software, and that's what I like about Nview...

#27550

I agree, the great thing about this is that it is

1) Fully hardware supported

2) Its free! (Y)

#27586

Well that is fine and dandy except:

1. It still uses the same methods and API calls as a third party transperizer.

2. nview is still an extra .exe to run, it's bundled with the drivers though yes, however this isn't any more native than activating trasnparency with transperizer.exe for example.

3. there are lots of free transperizers like: glass2k, transperizer.exe (which was made in the win2k days). If your card doesn't accelerate transparency over a certain size well this won't make it able to.

4. It doesn't have OSX like features. Transparency like this has been around since win2k.

5. You can add a roll up button with theming systems other than visual styles with a pretty button or any kind of click on the titlebar without having to use freeshade. Some like WB can even add a transperizing titlebar button or click though not a lot are using it. However I'm thinking of adding a special click to my themes thus you can do transpernizing rolling up and theming with one program. When you use this and a theme you are still using 2.

6. What's so bad about using extra software if it works well? I here don't purposely use software that does not work well. If it works well I keep it. If not then I don't, and nview hadn't worked well for me actually now that I mention it neither has the newer nvidia drivers.

7. Heard about this before.

8. Manufacterors often assimilate third party stuff. When making drivers nvidia was helping out a company with fixes to their drivers to make their software work better but they had to exchange information so based on that information nvidia also made bundled software to go with their drivers. Ever notice how they are getting bigger and bigger to download? A lot of companies have assimilated shareware, freeware into their products, even Apple.

Well now I'm rambling so that's the end of this post.

:order:

#27604

thanks cosmo! I actually had this before i formated my drive, and i couldnt find it after, so i found this very useful

#27687