0 Toggle Windows Transparency Effects from PowerShell.md

Toggle Windows “Transparency Effects” from PowerShell

When Windows’ Transparency effects are on, right-click menus and other UI surfaces use an acrylic, grayish, semi-transparent background. Turning transparency off restores an opaque (often white) background. You can switch this setting directly from PowerShell by editing the same registry value the Settings app controls.

Check the current setting

Get-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Personalize" |
  Select-Object EnableTransparency

• 1 = Transparency On
• 0 = Transparency Off

Turn transparency Off (opaque/white look)

Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Personalize" `
  -Name EnableTransparency -Value 0

Turn transparency On (acrylic/gray look)

Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Personalize" `
  -Name EnableTransparency -Value 1

Apply the change immediately

You can sign out/in, but restarting Explorer is faster:

Stop-Process -Name explorer -Force
Start-Process explorer

Handy one-liner (turn Off and refresh)

Set-ItemProperty "HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Personalize" -Name EnableTransparency -Value 0; Stop-Process -Name explorer -Force; Start-Process explorer

Notes

• Works on Windows 10 and 11.
• This maps to Settings → Personalization → Colors → Transparency effects.
• Use Value 0 for a solid background (e.g., white menus) and Value 1 for the acrylic effect.