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Anno0001 — Taskbar Blur Toggle 0.2.0
by-nc-nd
Published: 2013-11-08 22:19:29 +0000 UTC; Views: 166239; Favourites: 158; Downloads: 17247
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Description
Edit: almost 50,000 views! Thanks!This is a little project I am working on. I'm developing a theme for Windows 7 (not in the preview) and was annoyed by the taskbar blur. It makes some taskbar backgrounds look muddy. So, I opened C# and started developing. This is the end result!
DOWNLOAD (mega.co.nz): goo.gl/0wXHkh
ALTERNATE (OneDrive): goo.gl/jfyDJw
UPDATE 0.2.0: The .NET requirement has dropped from .NET 4.0 to .NET 2.0. The readme in the ZIP file above has more information.
I hate to sound like a beggar, but would you please consider donating a few pennies to me so I can maintain this application?
www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?…
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Comments: 143
This program itself doesn't require the functionality of the start menu, but StartIsBack makes a necessary change to the way the taskbar is rendered. You can disable the Start menu from appearing with the Windows key and the Start button in the StartIsBack configuration dialog. The Start menu uses no resources when disabled this way.
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Thank you, thank you, thank you so so mcuh for taking the time to make this brother 
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BTW, do you know if it is possible to do the same for the explorer frame (explorer.exe) ?
Thank you again for your hard work, love this app
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Really cool, does it also hide the start menu blur? Source chance?
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I found out something interesting today. It seems the dev of Glass8 has removed the (native) ability to blur the taskbar. With that gone, my tool no longer functions.
BUT StartIsBackPlus 1.5 implemented this feature so you no longer need Glass8 to use TBBT! You just need StartIsBackPlus which is far less resource intensive.
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Nice job!
And what about killing Taskbar items flashing?
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The new hot tracking feature? That can't be done without changing the way explorer.exe draws the taskbar buttons, which would require injecting a DLL.
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Understood, hard. You don't want to do that, yes?
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I noticed something very interesting, for about 1 second after you restart the computer you can actually see full transparency of the windows 7 start menu. It will remain transparent as long as you keep it up for the first time you click on it. But, after you toggle it back down it will revert back to the default menu blur. I am guessing there is a registry setting or something embedded in explorer that is taking over? I just wanted to let you know that transparency in the start menu does actually work for a second! If I log off and try to replicate this again i won't, i'm guessing because it is cached so fast I can't see it happen, I have to restart every time to see this. Maybe if you can upload the source code somewhere someone can take a look at it or maybe me?
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It even works under win 8.1 (64x)
Great work
Thanks for sharing
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how? i can't make it work on win8.1 (x64)
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this is very nice. thanks for your efforts.
i will be much better if it need not to stay in memory after startup
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To properly handle Startup and Taskbar movement changes (changing side of screen) it needs to stay resident. Don't worry though. It only takes a maximum of 3MB RAM and is very unobtrusive.
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i see , it works very well , thanks a lot!
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thats sick.. thx for this amazing stuff..
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This is really awesome!
Thank you very much.
I will be adjusting some of my themes to make better use of this!
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Thanks!
I can't wait to see what new creative designs you guys come up with. I'm not really too talented with graphics design, all I can do is program mostly.
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Your welcome
I just did a quick edit on a couple of Windows 7 themes gsw953onda.deviantart.com/art/…
and I'm working on something new that will make full use of it too!
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Thanks for the update DBlake, all working fine here, hows things going with the start menu, any more joy?
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Unfortunately, no. Still trying, though.
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Scratch that, I've given up. Sorry.
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lol no worries mate, thanks for giving it a shot
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This is really great! Pls make a version for windows 8/8.1
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This method works when the re-instated Aero Glass is installed on Windows 8. Not sure about 8.1.
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tested on windows8. works fine
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New version out! 
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I would like to make 1 request that would make this tool perfect, the option to have it enabled on startup, I know you made it very easy to make your own shortcut to the DisableTBBlur.exe and place it in the startup folder but for simplicity it would be better to have a check box on your app that does this for you, other then that it looks like it does a perfect job, just hope it doesn't cause any system instability.
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Well I have to say, what the fuck took you so long lmao I have been waiting for someone to do this since Windows 7 was released, absolutely gifted mate, that's what you are, thank you so much for this tool, it's a god send for all themers on Windows 7.
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I don't know, honestly. This tiny little "what if I swap this for that?" thought came into my head a few days ago. See, I was originally programming my own Aero Glass-enabled app in C# (which I ended up not continuing). I still had code remnants left over from that (namely functions for blur etc). I reused those functions and figured out how to target the taskbar with them. Thus this experiment was born!
About your comment below: I haven't yet included the "run at startup" option because, well honestly, I hadn't thought about it at all. That, and this is more of a test (even though it's 100% stable for me). Basically, this is just to see if anyone else has issues with it (or with it and other programs).
None of the EXEs stay resident in your system after execution (in other words, they are entirely standalone other than the .NET 4 requirement). They use no CPU power and no RAM other than while they are being executed (which, for the most part, takes all of .01 seconds).
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OK well like I said it's pretty simple to make it run at startup anyway so no drama for me, just that you know you will get those asking the question allot, "how do we make this start with windows" one thing I have learned with making themes is to make things as simple as I can for the end user to save me from the constant headaches from people asking the same questions over and over, even if the answer to their question was posted a couple of comments before, sadly most people don't like to help themselves and need guidance for every simple little thing.
I do have another request though, is there a chance you could target some more elements like the explorer frame, start menu and jump list, I know there are already registry settings to turn off the blur on the explorer frames but maybe if you created an all in one it may be more appealing, for me though one of the best options would be for the start menu, at the moment I can remove the blur but it is using a very ugly hack in the msstyles to achieve this and also sacrifices the search bar.
Anyway I would just like to thank you for your work so far, I am definitely going to implement this in a new theme, maybe with a dock style taskbar or something else crazy, the options to have different shapes and drop shadows now instead of just a straight bar will open many possibilities to get more creative.
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As a little test, I made a theme for myself to test what can be done without taskbar blur: dblake1.deviantart.com/art/Tes…
I'll try to see what I can do about the start menu blur. That'll be a bit more challenging for me for sure. Unlike the taskbar, the Start Menu isn't visible all the time, so I'll have to hook it somehow.
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That's a cool looking test mate, you should release it to show what can be done.
If the start menu is going to be too much trouble then don't worry about it, I thought as the ground work was already there you may have had an easy way to target that as well, it's up to you though, either way I am still very happy just having this new taskbar without blur.
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Well, I tried. It will only half-work on the start menu. My method works good...if you don't go to the all programs menu, then the blur comes back. So, that's a no-go for now.
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Well sounds like your on the right track at least, good work mate, I have faith in you.
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Version 0.2.0 is out with a lower .NET requirement.
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The taskbar of the theme does look cool, but the window borders and such are largely crap since I am not that talented at window border design.
Well, as I said, I have to find a way to hook the window as it's drawn on-screen. I can't do that in C#; it's just not in the scope of what is possible in managed code. I can, however, make a secondary app in AutoIt that does this. I just have to figure out how to port my method to AutoIt from C#.
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