Why would someone want to make windows transparent at times? To access or interact with underlying windows or icons of course. This speeds up access to the data as users do not have to move, resize or minimize the window on top to access or interact with windows and icons located under that top window.

The default hotkey to make the active window transparent is Shift-Ctrl-Z (with options to change the hotkey in the program options). The window will stay transparent until the hotkey is used a second time. The program is configured to display the contents of underlying windows and the desktop only, which means that you cannot interact with the windows or icons by default.

You can change the default behavior to include a “click-through” option to interact with underlying windows and icons.

This way you could easily use the hotkey to launch a program or file from your desktop that you would not see otherwise, or interact with another program or window that is underneath the current one.

A slider is available in the options to set a transparency level to either show more of the active window or less of it on the screen.

Windows Vista and Windows XP users get a bonus. They can use the shortcut keys Ctrl-Windows-Up/Down and Ctrl-Windows-Left/Right to maximize/minimize windows and send them to a monitor on the left or right of the current monitor.

See Through Windows is a handy application to improve the work flow when working with the Windows operating system. The software is available for all 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system. Users may need some getting used to time before the program becomes part of their work routine though.

See Through Windows requires the Microsoft .Net Framework. The developer is unfortunately not revealing which.

You can get started with GhostWin by following this link and allowing the program to download onto your computer. The download file is a mere 356 KB, so do not worry about filling up space on your hard drive with this program. Installation is hands free, and the program should be sitting, waiting for you to use in a matter of seconds.

GhostWin is controlled from two different places, depending on what it is exactly that you want to do. First, you can set up a series of default actions that all windows should do at all times. To do so, open up the program’s console which can only be accessed by opening the program’s .exe file – there is no icon to be found lurking about your toolbars. From here you can change all default settings for the program. Simply decide whether or not you want the program to make windows that are being moved or resized transparent or not.

This is also the place that you can turn to if you would like to suspend the program’s normal operation and allow all windows to stay opaque, regardless of whether they are being moved or not. Finally, you can also choose whether or not you would like the console to appear at startup, giving you the option of disabling the feature before each session.

While it is great to be able to have windows fade to transparency when being moved across the desktop, there are times when you might want a stable window become see through while stationary as well. In such cases GhostWin can be accessed directly from the individual program. Simply right click on the header bar of any window and mouse down to the GhostWin menu. Select your desired opacity and click. The window will stay at that level of transparency until you tell it to return to its normal state.

From that same menu you can access the GhostWin console or even set a window to remain on top of all others, regardless of which you select.
When the time comes to work on multiple projects, being able to see what is under your open window can be extremely helpful. While not always precisely what you need, GhostWin provides a function that no other program is able to handle is as compact and worry free a way.

Besides, if you find it bothering you in a particular instance but do not want to be rid of it altogether, you can always turn it off for a while. In the end, GhostWin can be a very handy product for those who frequently work with multiple windows and who want a little help tending to them all.

One of those ways is using the Compiz “3D” desktop. But using Compiz is not enough for me. I want my windows decorated far more than the average window manager can handle. That’s where Emerald comes in. Emerald is a window decorator that usually ships with Compiz but does not always include everything you need. And in some instances, Compiz doesn’t include Emerald. That’s an easiest enough problem to figure out and solve.

What is Emerald?

As stated earlier, Emerald is a theme-able window decorator. But Emerald takes window decorating one step further by also allowing for full-composite window decorations. By adding composite to the decoration Emerald can include such features as transparency and drop shadow. And Emerald does this without taking any more of a hit on your resources than a normal window manager. That is, assuming you have the hardware that supports compositing. The main issue is that your graphics chip must support 3D/Direct Rendering. If your hardware can support that, your hardware will work with Emerald. You will also need to have Compiz installed (this article will assume you have Compiz up and running).

Getting and installing

The good news is that Emerald will be in your repository. Here are the steps to install Emerald:

• Open up your Add/Remove Software utility.
• Do a search for “emerald” (no quotes)
• Mark Emerald for installation.
• Click Apply to install.

Now, the bad news is that Emerald will only install with one theme. You will have to find new themes on line. There are plenty of places to find Emerald themes. The best location I have found is the Compiz Community. Search through those themes and download the ones you like. Download those files to a single directory (let’s say ~/THEMES) We’ll talk about adding them in a moment.

Running Emerald

In order to start Emerald you have to run it such that it will replace your current window decorator. To do this open up the Run Command dialog (in GNOME you’ll hit <Alt>F2) and enter the command:

emerald –replace

You will immediately see your window decorations change. The default theme is a transparent red-ish theme.

Figure 1

Now you will want to open up the theme manager. You will find the Emerald Theme manager in the Preferences sub-menu of the System menu. When the theme manager opens (see Figure 1) you will see no themes listed. In Figure 1 you can see a theme (Overglass) which has been added. All themes you have added to Emerald will be listed here.

Adding themes

The themes you download will be in .emerald format. All you need to do to add a theme is click on the Import button, navigate to the theme you want to add and click OK. The theme will change to the new theme, you actually have to select that new theme for it to take affect. To switch to the newly added them just select the theme from the listing in the Themes tab of the manager.

Start Emerald at login

One issue you will find is that Emerald doesn’t automatically start at login. Without setting it up to automatically start, you will have to start it via command line every time you log into your account. Fortunately you can set this up easily. To do so you open up the Startup Applications Preferences. Locate this tool in the Preferences sub-menu of the System menu.

Figure 2

When it opens up you will see a simple window with two tabs and a few buttons. Click on the Add button to open up the Add Startup Program window (see Figure 2). You can see, in Figure 2, the details you need to add for this to work. Once you have added the information click the Add button and then click the Close button.

Now the next time you log in to your desktop Emerald will be your window decorator.

Final thoughts

Of all the window decorators out there you will find Emerald to be the best of the best. Not only does it offer numerous attractive themes, it won’t take as much of a hit on your performance as you might think it would. Give Emerald a try and you will see just how far the desktop can go.

Taskbar and Start Menu transparency adds custom transparency to the Windows Taskbar and Start Menu. Non-active windows transparency keeps the active window opaque and makes all other open windows transparent while Contrast Screen helps the user focus on the current task by placing a solid contrast screen underneath it that covers the rest of the computer desktop.

The Jelly effects are more unusual and harder to figure out. Activating Windows Bounce will bounce every window the user clicks on which did cause troubles with the Windows Start Menu on the test computer. Windows Resilence makes Windows act like jelly during resize while Window Kinetics adds basic kinetics to windows movement.

The program has a few quirks which can be attributed to the early version. The transparent windows effects work fine and without problems. The Window Resilence and Window Kinetics Jelly effects would not work on the test computer. That, or they were not recognizable. Windows Bounce was working but pretty annoying after a short while.

The best feature so far is the Contrast Screen option which makes it easier to work in Windows. The software program uses roughly 20 Megabytes of computer memory and users who only want the transparency effects are probably better off with an application that demands less system resources like Chaos Crystal

Glass 2k has to be loaded and places an icon in the system tray. If you intend to use it all the time you should enable the setting to load Glass 2k at windows startup. The keyboard shortcuts can be changed to other keyboard combinations. Alternatively you can opt to add a Transparency Popup to the right mouse button which could be combined with a key as well.

Pressing alt and the right mouse button would open a slider that let you define the transparency level. Glass 2k can also set the transparency level of the task bar.