14 DAY TRIAL // Windows 10 April 2018 Update certainly comes with a plethora of bugs that completely ruin the experience for some, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that all issues are bad.
In fact, a bug-that’s-more-of-a-feature has recently been spotted by a number of users who upgraded to the latest Windows 10 release and updated their graphics drivers. As confirmed in this reddit thread, a graphics driver compatibility problem sometimes makes the taskbar completely transparent in a way that Windows 10 does not let users configure easily.
As you can see in this screenshot posted by user NeophyteLifter, the desktop looks marvelous with the right wallpaper and the bug in action, and maybe Microsoft itself should have this in mind when thinking of new customization options for the next Windows 10 release.
How to get the transparent taskbar
And while many people are already searching for ways to reproduce the bug, it’s worth knowing that having an invisible taskbar is also possible without a graphics driver issue.
A little tool called TranslucentTB allows you to do just that with no configuration option, just launch the app and let it do its magic. A small icon in the taskbar enables you to configure the taskbar effect that you want to use, like blur, normal, clear, and dynamic windows, but also run it at boot to always have the taskbar look the way you want.
The program works on all Windows 10 versions, so you can use it to have a taskbar with maximum transparency even if you haven’t upgraded to the April 2018 Update.
There are also third-party Start menu apps that can do that, like Classic Shell, but TranslucentTB is a much easier to use option without any other extra features.
The next Windows 10 versions to see daylight is Redstone 5 due in the fall, so fingers crossed for Microsoft to actually understand that this bug must be a feature.