[Aero Glass For Win8.1
Amancio Mccrae
Actually Microsoft has removed Aero glass transparency feature from Windows 8 just like the removal of Start Menu, Start button and various other stuff. It was done to improve system performance and reduce battery power usage.
Same thing can also be achieved by first applying a High contrast theme and then re-applying default Windows theme. Actually its a bug in Windows 8. You are not going to get Aero glass feature or transparency using this tweak. This trick forces Windows 8 to just draw window borders and everything else remains unchanged. So the transparency which you get using the above trick is not actually a transparency. Its just a blank space which is showing the background stuff. Also its unstable. As soon as you move the program window, it gets massed up.
So there is no built-in way or Registry tweak to get Aero glass transparency back in Windows 8 but there will be many 3rd party software available in coming days which will provide Aero glass transparency in Windows 8. Similar to freeware bringing back Start Menu and Start button in Windows 8 and freeware to customize Start Screen in Windows 8.
In the meantime you can try following freeware which were created to get Windows Vista and Windows 7 style Aero glass transparency in Windows XP but these freeware might also work in Windows 8 (not tested):
About the author: Vishal Gupta (also known as VG) has been awarded the Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award. He holds a Masters degree in Computer Applications (MCA). He has written several tech articles for popular newspapers and magazines and has also appeared in tech shows on various TV channels.
dunno, works fine for me x: may be another prob or i explained wrong and yea its completely transparent not aero glass :/ hope someone comes out with a program to bring back aero soon, its been a few months already
1. AeroGlass will do it, although you will have to do minor registry edits because it uses hooks within the native DWM and DirectX. If you choose this option, BACKUP the registry keys BEFORE modifying them by using the EXPORT option.
When Microsoft announced plans for the desktop UI in Windows 8 in 2012, they mentioned that the aero glass look, which was introduced in Windows Vista and continued in Windows 7, would not return for the new version of the OS. Since then, there's been speculation that modders would try to return the aero glass look to the desktop for Windows 8.
A couple of weeks ago, a programmer who goes by the handle "bigmuscle" on the MSFN message boards announced he had completed the first version of a new and small program called simply Aero Glass for Win8. He has since released two more versions of the software, including one that was launched earlier this week.
I have developed DLL library in C++ which is injected into dwm.exe process (no system files replacement is required). Then, the functions used for window border drawing are hooked with my own implementation. This ensures that anytime DWM wants to draw the window border, the code is redirected into my library where I can change the parameters of vertex buffer, blend state and other stuff. Then I redirect back to the original drawing function. Transparent window border is drawn!
"Bigmuscle" says that this program should be considered a preview version, so needless to say you should download and install it at your own risk. It's also just for the 64-bit version of Windows 8. Having said that, the early reviews from users seem to like the results.
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