TranslucentTB is an award-winning free and open-source solution to tune both your taskbar's look and behavior. Lightweight and offering many customization possibilities, you will love how cool and handy your taskbar will become.
What is TranslucentTB?
TranslucentTB is an open-source Runner up for the Microsoft Store App Awards 2022 application designed to let you pimp and customize your Windows taskbar behavior and appearance.
A good taskbar is one you don't notice as it provides a smooth experience no matter what. Its main goal is to show you the currently running programs, some of your system states, and notifications, and give you access to all other menus and applications.
As a consequence, it is crucial to make it nice-looking but also let it adapt depending on how applications and windows populate your screen. And that's the purpose of TranslucentTB, as it provides several states and dynamic modes that you can combine to your liking, and it also empowers you to change your taskbar's color and transparency level.
What are the key features of TranslucentTB?
- Taskbar states: You can choose among different states to change the appearance of your taskbar, and the color can be customized on every state (except Normal). Normal is the traditional Windows style, as if TranslucentTB was not running. Opaque makes it look like a tinted taskbar without transparency. Clear makes it look like a tinted taskbar. Blur transforms your taskbar into a slightly blurred one. Finally, Acrylic gives an appearance similar to Microsoft's Fluent Design guidelines.
- Modes: Dynamic modes can be combined, each providing a specific taskbar state and color you can customize to your liking. Visible Window will change the taskbar's appearance if a window is currently open on the desktop. Maximized Window switches the taskbar's appearance if a window is currently maximized. Start opened transforms the taskbar when the start menu is opened. Search opened changes its appearance when the search menu (previously Cortana) is opened. And Task View opened is for when the Task View (previously Timeline) is open.
- Color picker: The advanced color picker part of TranslucentTB empowers you to pick any color you would like to use for your taskbar. And it supports alpha and live preview, which, you may admit, is pretty convenient.
- Lightweight: TranslucentTB only uses a tiny portion of your CPU resources (almost none) and a few MB of RAM. Hence, your Windows experience is the same as usual.
How to use TranslucentTB?
- Once installed and launched, you can right-click on your taskbar to access all the different customization options.
- To add TranslucentTB to startup, check the "Open at boot" entry in the TranslucentTB tray icon's context menu.
Is TranslucentTB free?
TranslucentTB is totally free to use.
Is TranslucentTB safe?
TranslucentTB is safe to use and open-source. Some antiviruses are over-eager and might flag it as malicious, but it is not.