{"id":3211,"date":"2016-06-22T17:25:21","date_gmt":"2016-06-22T11:55:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/198.58.113.91\/blog\/?p=3211"},"modified":"2022-09-04T16:28:41","modified_gmt":"2022-09-04T10:58:41","slug":"make-alt-tab-background-transparent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/make-alt-tab-background-transparent\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Make Alt+Tab Background Fully Transparent"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Windows 10, when you use Alt + Tab to switch windows, the grid background is black by default, and the background windows and desktop icons are displayed as shown in this image. This post unveils some hidden registry settings to configure how the Alt+Tab switcher displays.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"alt+tab
\n(Desktop icons shown in the background)<\/em><\/p>\n

Hidden Registry Settings for Alt + Tab<\/h2>\n

Hide Desktop Icons and Windows during Alt+Tab<\/h3>\n

To hide the desktop icons and windows in the background (so that only the Alt+Tab switcher shows up on the screen), here is the registry edit:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Open regedit.exe<\/code> and go to:\n
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer\\MultitaskingView<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n
  2. Create a subkey and name it as AltTabViewHost<\/code><\/li>\n
  3. In the right-pane of AltTabViewHost<\/code> key, create a REG_DWORD value named Wallpaper<\/code><\/li>\n
  4. Double-click Wallpaper and set its data to 1<\/code>\n
    \"alt+tab
    Desktop icons and program windows are now hidden<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    \n
    Make Alt+Tab Transparent<\/h3>\n
    In the AltTabViewHost registry key, create a DWORD value named Grid_backgroundPercent<\/strong><\/code><\/p>\n
    Double-click “Grid_backgroundPercent<\/code>” value and set its data accordingly. 0<\/code> means fully transparent. 100<\/code> is fully opaque. You may set something around 5<\/code> to 10<\/code>.<\/p>\n
    After setting it to 0<\/code>, here is how it appears.<\/p>\n
    \"alt+tab
    Grid background set to 0%<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
    If the window titles are not clear, you may want to set the opacity to 10<\/code> or more.<\/p>\n
    \"alt+tab
    Grid background set to 10%<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
    Alternatively, create a value named BackgroundDimmingLayer_percent<\/b><\/code>if you want to dim the background wallpaper (not the grid background) and set the opacity as required. Here I set the BackgroundDimmingLayer_percent<\/b><\/code> to 40% (decimal: 40<\/code>), and here is how it looks.<\/p>\n
    \"alt+tab
    Grid Background 0% & Background dim at 40%; you can see the diff from the previous image.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
    Exit the Registry Editor.<\/p>\n
    There are plenty of other settings related to Alt +Tab, but most are trivial.<\/p>\n
    Registry File for the Above Settings<\/h2>\n
    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00\r\n[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer\\MultitaskingView\\AltTabViewHost]\r\n\"Grid_backgroundPercent\"=dword:00000000\r\n\"BackgroundDimmingLayer_percent\"=dword:00000028\r\n\"wallpaper\"=dword:00000001\r\n<\/pre>\n
    That’s it!<\/p>\n
    (Originally published on 22-Jun-2016, and Last Reviewed on 04-Sep-2022)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
    On Windows 10, when you use Alt + Tab to switch windows, the grid background is black by default, and the background windows and desktop icons are displayed as shown in this image. This post unveils some hidden registry settings to configure how the Alt+Tab switcher displays.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8,869],"tags":[441],"class_list":["post-3211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-windows-10","category-windows-11","tag-registry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4543,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/launch-alt-tab-switcher-script-command-line-mouse\/","url_meta":{"origin":3211,"position":0},"title":"Create Shortcut to Launch the Alt-Tab Switcher (for Mouse users)","author":"Ramesh","date":"November 17, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The most useful and frequently used Alt + Tab keyboard shortcut has been there since the Windows 3.1 era. 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