14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has already improved the taskbar in Windows 10, but as it usually happens when it comes to customization options, users expect the company to continue work in this regard and introduce even more features in the next OS updates.
And while there’s no doubt that certain Windows 10 features would continue to evolve as the operating system itself is getting better, here’s something that may be a little surprising when first hearing it.
There is a bug in Windows 10 that users love so much Microsoft should make it a feature, and it all comes down to the way the taskbar is rendered due to faulty graphics drivers.
As you might have heard lately, the graphics drivers sometimes crash, making the taskbar completely transparent, just like you can see in the screenshot included in this article.
Technically, you can easily fix this by simply restarting the drivers, but as it turns out, most people who actually experience this problem really like it this way. This makes it a bug they really love, but which goes away once the system is rebooted.
There’s no clear pattern to reproduce this bug, though it does come back every once in a while at random moments.
Fortunately, those who like the taskbar with full transparency can use a small third-party tool to make it look this way with just a double-click. Called TranslucentTB, this utility does nothing more than to add this maximum transparency level to the taskbar, pretty much making this bug permanent on Windows 10, obviously without causing any other issues on the operating system.
The full taskbar transparency should really become a Windows 10 feature that users can enable from the Settings app in the operating system. There’s already a taskbar section in Settings > Personalization, so without a doubt, such a feature would really make perfect sense.
With Windows 10 Redstone 5 already close to entering the stabilization process, which means that it’s nearly feature complete, there’s nearly no chance for Microsoft to implement it in this OS feature update. The biggest chances to see such an option be part of the Windows 10 feature arsenal is Redstone 6, which is due in the spring of 2019. Microsoft should soon begin shipping preview builds of Redstone 6 to the Skip Ahead ring, though the first versions wouldn’t include too many changes versus Redstone 5.
As usual, you can refer to the Feedback Hub to let Microsoft know you want this bug to become a feature. There’s already a post discussing taskbar customization options, and one of the most recent comments shows just how big this could be for users:
“On first update the task bar had a very high transparency that looked amazing and got me started really trying to customize my appearance everywhere, but unfortunately when I toggled small icons or auto hide, the taskbar went back to intended behavior. I haven't figured out a trick to bring back the bug, so I'm just going to ask that that high transparency mode be given a switch in personalization options,” user Eli H. posted.
Such an option would be a neat addition to the Fluent Design overhaul that’s now being worked on at Microsoft. The taskbar already received the blur effect as part of Fluent Design, so full transparency could continue the revamp of this feature in the coming Windows 10 updates.
For the time being, however, Microsoft has remained completely tight-lipped on the chances to make this happen in a future Windows 10 version, but the bigger the number of votes in the Feedback Hub, the higher the chances for the company to implement it.