Question Start menu transparency gone, no idea why or how to fix

[Archon of the Valley]

Hi, recently I've noticed that the transparency used on the Windows 10 start menu has disappeared for me. Now, it's simply a blank, opaque block of color based on whatever theme color I'm using. This seemingly happened out of nowhere, no specific update or installation seemed to trigger it.

I do have Open Shell installed, as I wanted to set up a custom Windows 7-themed taskbar while maintaining the Windows 10 start menu (one of the few things I love about 10). However, I distinctly remember it being there after installing and customizing Open Shell, so I don't think that's the problem; closing Open Shell doesn't fix the problem, either. I have all the latest drivers installed as well.

I've tried searching this and running it through AI-powered search (Brave Summarizer and Brave's new built-in chatbot) but nothing seems to be coming up that is relevant to my issue. I also ran DISM and SFC scans, nothing helped. I'm really stumped on this. Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[hedwar2011]

Typically when something like that changes, its a result of the visual style or theme being updated by something. Back in the old days of Windows 7, the same thing happened with Windows Aero (the transparent visual effect) when a graphics driver went haywire or something.

You might try booting to Safe Mode, uninstalling your graphics driver using DDU and reinstalling the latest version and see if that resolves it.

 

[Archon of the Valley]

Typically when something like that changes, its a result of the visual style or theme being updated by something. Back in the old days of Windows 7, the same thing happened with Windows Aero (the transparent visual effect) when a graphics driver went haywire or something.

You might try booting to Safe Mode, uninstalling your graphics driver using DDU and reinstalling the latest version and see if that resolves it.

Ah right, I didn't think about actually fully uninstalling the drivers. I think I'll try a clean boot first just to narrow down the issue before I go to the trouble of using DDU.

 

[Archon of the Valley]

Finally got around to working on this issue and sure enough, I just had to spin up DDU and manually reinstall the drivers. Thanks!

 

[Mattp2017]

Finally got around to working on this issue and sure enough, I just had to spin up DDU and manually reinstall the drivers. Thanks!

Next time you should just be able to search for advanced system settings then click on settings under 'performance' in the tab that pops up. The first tab is 'visual effects' and you should be able to turn on/off things like transparency, etc.

Edit* Nvm just noticed where you said it was only the start menu

 

[Archon of the Valley]

Next time you should just be able to search for advanced system settings then click on settings under 'performance' in the tab that pops up. The first tab is 'visual effects' and you should be able to turn on/off things like transparency, etc.

Edit* Nvm just noticed where you said it was only the start menu

It was the start menu but I did notice the transparency on my taskbar was really "off", in that only my wallpaper showed up through it, whereas games showed up under it before the issue occurred. Like I said, I have Open Shell and it's set to look like Windows 7's task bar, so it has that Aero Glass transparency.

 

[Archon of the Valley]

I don't mean to necro but I think I figured out the reason why this was happening to me, because it happened again and I fixed it in a different way than before. I hope it's alright that I've updated this in case others have the issue as well.

The other day, I was running through Winaero Tweaker after its most recent update and one of the options I checked out was "Increase Taskbar Transparency Level". I wanted to see what it looked like on the default taskbar instead of my Open Shell setup. Apparently, I forgot to turn it off because this transparency issue returned. I tried the previous method of using DDU and reinstalling my drivers but it didn't work this time. What's more is that it caused my colors to be very bright and washed out, to the point where I had to do a system restore since I couldn't fix the washed out colors even in my monitor's settings.

However, it suddenly dawned on me to try toggling off that setting in Winaero Tweaker and sure enough, as soon as I did that and signed back into my account, the issue was gone. This would make sense because I did a run through Winaero Tweaker around the time when I made the initial post.

So the TL;DR is this- if you have the issue I described here and if you use Winaero Tweaker or another tool that modifies the transparency of the taskbar or start menu, try toggling that off first.