Blend gave me transparent windows even when I dont have the ability to have them normally! Very nice!

themiddaysun

@kureshii: Glass2K? I think I used that back in Windows 98SE days. It was back in 2001 I think.

ICEBreaker

@ICEBreaker: If I'm not mistaken, there is Aero-style transparency for XP. I found it a long time ago while searching for uxtheme.dll hacks for XP. I can't remember what it was called though, since it didn't interest me.

Also, lifehacker, I don't know if it's a problem with Firefox 2, with my cookies or with the site, but my posts don't seem to appear even after repeated refreshing (I apologise for the double-comment). It's a little distressing not knowing if a comment got through or not.

kureshii

@ICEBreaker: Why would you need it? Say you're at a cafe (i.e. no dual-screen setup), and you need to type minutes for a meeting from digitised hand-scribbled notes. [Or come up with your own scenario for needing to create a document with reference to another document.]

What will you do? Will you keep Alt+Tabbing, or just set the foreground app to a reasonable transparency level so you can see the background app?

Alternatively, this also allows me to IM with a full-screen video in the background. It only works for certain video files; I get flicker with incompatible file formats.

I would like to have a commandline-style IM app that only takes up 2 or 3 lines (fits nicely in the top 7 bottom black bars of widescreen movies), but can't find one that suits my needs yet.

I'm sure if your'e imaginative enough you can find wasy to boost productivity with full window transparency, and not just Aero frame-only transparency.

kureshii

Typing this out again as it seems as if the last post didn't get submitted properly.

Anyway, not sure if most people would want to have the entire window translucent. It would make the foreground difficult to read, and it seems quite distracting.

What would be excellent is if someone replicated Aero. This would benefit those with Win2K, WinXP, VistaBasic, or those using VMWare and Parallels. Lots of people want Aero, but can't have it.

Now how come no one is working on that?

ICEBreaker

Blend needs installation. Try Glass2k ([chime.tv]), which is a standalone app. It's no longer under development, but I haven't had any problems with the latest build.
It remembers individual folder/app settings as well (there's a setting for it), and changing transparency on the fly is as simple as Ctrl+Alt+[0-9]. You can even change transparency for the Start menu and taskbar, among other little hidden tricks.
Too bad it can't turn videos transparent (though the player app will turn transparent, just not the video), but I guess that will really chew CPU cycles.
After an entire day at my laptop Glass2k doesn't exceed 10mb memory footprint, while it could still be improved I think that's a reasonable amount.

kureshii

Not sure if this is useful for most people. I am not sure why I would want the entire window to be translucent. Makes the foreground hard to read.

What I would love is to have Aero style transparency. People with Win2K, WinXP, VistaBasic, or those on VMWare/Parallels would all benefit!

Why can't Blend work on that rather than their current product? Lots of people want Aero but can't get it.

ICEBreaker

Blend needs installation. Try Glass2k ([chime.tv]), which is a standalone app. It's no longer under development, but I haven't had any problems with the latest build.

It remembers individual folder/app settings as well (there's a setting for it), and changing transparency on the fly is as simple as Ctrl+Alt+[0-9]. You can even change transparency for the Start menu and taskbar, among other little hidden tricks.

Too bad it can't turn videos transparent (though the player app will turn transparent, just not the video), but I guess that will really chew CPU cycles.

After an entire day at my laptop Glass2k doesn't exceed 10mb memory footprint, while it could still be improved I think that's a reasonable amount.

kureshii

Have just tried Glass2K and it works great! Will use this one instead.

mcv2

mac users have afloat!

hookem

Sure looks like it... well, good to know there's nothing wrong with my browser.

Believe me, if I could do tiling I would. It's hard to do that with a tablet that only goes up to 1024X768 though... I think even on 1400X1050 it might be a problem as well (Word and a full-page PDF tiled together would be difficult).

I wouldn't think twice about tiling with a dual-screen set-up, but when you're in mobile mode you take what you can get ;)

Besides, the translucent Start menu and taskbar add a lot to the "wow" factor too. It's especially useful when you have a desktop wallpaper that doesn't match the taskbar colour very well - just set transparency (the more the colours clash, the higher you set taskbar transparency). I was quite bowled over by how well it worked the first time I tried it.

kureshii

Not sure I'm using this right, but I can't get individual folders to be transparent, only every folder or none at all. Does this app not do individual folders or am I doing something wrong?

mcv2

@kureshii: I see what you mean, and yes fair enough, I agree it is useful for some people. As for me, I personally think tiling the documents would work better. Or better yet, in Word, you can just split the screen. But that's just me. I guess everyone has their own approach.

And thanks for the tip about uxtheme.dll. I might look it up.

Oh, and it's not just you who have the reposting problem. Seems like I have it too.

ICEBreaker

By the way, doesn't Nvidia already have this function?

ICEBreaker

First, Blend doesn't need to be installed.

Second, the closest you can get to Aero without Windowblinds is an app called TrueTransparency that skins the window borders

SirSmiley

@kureshii: This just goes to show that you really need to try to come up with a good case for the usefulness of semi-transparent windows. Any other cases?

I've tried this stuff, and it just makes things less readable and less usable, and sometimes noticeably slower.

What I'd really like is real translucency, i.e. make the window semi-transparent, AND blur or diffuse the background a la Vista's frame. Not much more usable... it just looks nicer. So, for example, in the screenshot on this post, the Change button on the bLend window (in the background) would appear blurred when appearing behind the translucent Buddy List window (in the foreground).

Posco Grubb

Hmm, my XP didn't like this. It starts up, makes windows transparent and then locks up.

da5id_nz

TrueTransparency, Vystal, FastAero, ShockAero all do the border business

Blend is just what the writer of this post said it is: (according to the writer) a cleaner way to have completely translucent windows in XP than the many, many other apps that do the same

_||_

BTW, if any Linux users want this, check out Compiz's Window Rules plugin. A quick Google will help.

Daniel

ps, thanks for the heads-up on Glass2K; works a treat for me.

da5id_nz

@Icebreaker: TrueTransparency is the one I was talking about (thanks Sirsmiley for jogging my memory!)

@da5id_nz: You're welcome =)

kureshii

@Posco Grubb: I'd say that transparency serves its practical purposes best on small screens; on large screens or dual-display setups it's not much more than eye candy.

Another example: folder management. Sometimes I find myself comparing folder contents (small quantity, not enough to justify doing it with another app). Instead of wasting time resizing both windows so they sit nicely side by side I can just set one to semi-transparency and compare. (Remember that I'm doing this on a single XGA screen)

Glass2k hasn't made anything laggy for me yet, except certain CPU-intensive or high-refresh apps (like MATLAB). Folders, PDF readers etc go transclucent and move around with no noticeable lag for me.

As for readability, the transparency level is adjustable so just find one that's still readable.

My bad about Blend being install-reliant; seems I got it mixed up with the other hosted freeware app =P But I'm still sticking with Glass2k, for not requiring interaction with the system icon beyond setting initial app settings.

kureshii

Anyone know of a (free) program that can set the transparency based on if the window in the inactive?

orev

I like Pitaschio ([lifehacker.com]) better.

You can adjust transparency by scrolling the wheel.

m.j.

Have you heard about Winroll?
--> [palma.com.au]
Very easy, very useful, very very light, and free. Great!

ManuDevil