Glass taskbar in Win 8.1

[Archimede]

Hello

Can anyone recommend a way (or a tweak) to obtain a nice glassy taskbar in Win 8.1 like the one in the picture below? I already have all components (start button, clock etc.) but I do not like the boring Win 8 taskbar!

Since I only need the taskbar and no other customizations/themes, I am not considering to install WindowBlinds (only for that it would be absurd).

Thanks

 

[HippsieGypsie]

Hi there. As you probably know it is a part of Aero, of which some of it MS did not add in 8/8.1. I can't find any direct settings, but I know it has to do with the type of Theme one has. e.g. I downloaded Bing Desktop, which as you can see in my screenshot below has the translucent Task Bar.

Try a basic theme and see what happens.

 

[HippsieGypsie]

Transparency may be on by default. Check this out: http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/36785-taskbar-transparency-disable-using-aero-lite-theme.html

 

[Ivo]

You need 3 components:
1) The AeroGlass software by Big Muscle. It will make all opaque window frames glassy
2) A software that makes the taskbar opaque, and therefore glassy. The two I know of are Classic Shell (developed by me) and StartIsBack. There may be others that achieve the same effect without installing a start menu
3) (optional) Change the default flat image in the theme file with something more interesting. I haven't modified themes since Windows 7, so I don't know what is possible on 8. I'm sure other folks on this forum can help with this

I know this is probably an overkill, but nobody said beauty is easy!

 

[mdmd]

but I do not like the boring Win 8 taskbar!

ok. So I know you said you don't need any other customizations...
I only ask have you considered anything like this to relieve boredom or add something?

... made this little blurb, added a few tiles for show, taskbar is glassy, and it's in Florida Northbound I-95
anyway, if not helpful, apologies!

[video=youtube_share;bcNyjo8Evk8]http://youtu.be/bcNyjo8Evk8[/video]

 

[Archimede]

I know this is probably an overkill, but nobody said beauty is easy!

Thanks for the kind suggestions and (mostly THANKS) for having developed the A-M-A-Z-I-N-G Classic Shell.

To install Aero Glass for Win8 v.1.0 (Big Muscle) I started by disabling Secure Boot in the BIOS (as required).

At the end of the installation I rebooted (as prompted).

After reboot I was "greeted" by the following:

"Your THEMECPL.DLL is incompatible. Contol panel colorization won't be adjusted to transparency effects."

"Your SHELL32.DLL is incompatible. AutoColorization won't be adjusted to transparency effects."

Your DWM is incompatible with Aero Glass! See debug log for more details. Do you want to retry symbols downloading?

... Not really encouraging, uh?

So for the time being I decided to skip this type of "beauty" and I will keep (until something a bit easier will come up) the taskbar as I have it now (see screenshot below).

Thanks once more

 

[Ivo]

It looks like you are trying the Windows 8 version of Aero Glass. You need to download the 8.1 version.

 

[Archimede]

It looks like you are trying the Windows 8 version of Aero Glass. You need to download the 8.1 version.

You are right (I am an idiot... The embarrassed emoticon cannot express it enough)... These errors came up when I installed the wrong version

When I installed the right version (SHA1: D9F611C54F913165204C0E772E35F6F313414FE5) the results where practically unnoticeable, and yes, I did run the installer as Admin and did install in the root of C.

Thank you again