Overview – Windows Terminal Transparency
By default, the Windows Terminal has a black background. One of the numerous customization options provided by Windows is the ability to adjust the transparency of the Windows Terminal so you can change the opacity of the Windows Terminal and make it less/more transparent based on your needs.
It seems that you’re a developer who utilizes the Windows Terminal often and need to enhance its aesthetics by adjusting its transparency settings.
By the end of this article, you’ll be able to disable or enable transparent background in Windows Terminal:
1. Using Built-In Settings
Step 1: Open the Windows Terminal from the Start menu.
Step 2: Click the drop-down menu from the top bar and click the “Settings” button or press the “Ctrl + ,” key combination on the keyboard.
Step 3: Select the “Defaults” tab under the “Profiles” section on the left sidebar and click the “Appearance” under the “Additional Settings” section.
Step 4: Change the Windows Terminal Transparency by dragging the slider to the left.
NOTE: To enable the blur effect in Windows Terminal, enable Windows Transparency using Windows Settings and toggle on the “Enable Acrylic Material” button and click the “Save” button.
2. Using Mouse and Keyboard Combination
Step: Press and Hold the “Ctrl + Shift” key combination on the keyboard and scroll down the mouse wheel to decrease the Windows Terminal opacity and scroll the mouse wheel up to increase it.
3. Using JSON (JavaScript Object Notation)
NOTE: It is better to follow this method if you’ve some programming experience (not mandatory but recommended), otherwise you might end up misconfiguring the settings.
Step 1: Open the Windows Terminal from the Start menu.
Step 2: Click the drop-down menu from the top bar and select the “Settings” option.
Step 3: Click the “Open JSON file” button on the bottom left side of the window. The JSON configuration settings for Windows Terminal are actually located in the following path:
C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState named Settings (JSON format).
Step 4: Depending on the default app settings on your PC, the JSON File will open in the default JSON application viewer which can be Notepad, or any other code editor such as Visual Studio Code Editor, or Sublime Text Editor.
Step 5: To change the Windows Terminal Transparency, change the JSON key/property’s value named “Opacity” within range from 1 to 100. For example. setting the value to 50 will reduce the terminal opacity to 50%.
NOTE: To enable the blur effect in Windows Terminal, enable the Windows Transparency via Windows Settings and change the JSON value named “useAcrylic” from “false” to “true” and reduce the “Opacity” value.
NOTE: If any of the JSON settings are misconfigured, a message stating the reason for the error will appear. To hide this warning temporarily, click the “OK” button. To hide this warning permanently, all you’ve to do is to find the error and fix it. However, in this instance, the Windows Terminal Settings will be switched to default temporarily, so that the terminal remains usable but with limited features.
Suggested Article: Change Default Browser in Windows 11.
Troubleshoot Windows Terminal Transparency
1. Enable the Windows Transparency Effects: The Acrylic design component in the Microsoft Fluent UI doesn’t work unless the transparency settings in Windows are not enabled. To enable the transparency effects, you can follow the method listed above.
2. Disable the Power Saving Mode: When the power saving mode is enabled, the system minimizes/limits the system’s resource consumption to save the battery. So, this might be one of the reasons why the Windows terminal is not appearing transparent on your version of Windows.
Suggested Article: Change Power Scheme (Modes) in Windows 11.
Next Steps
We’ve covered how to make enable transparent background on Windows Terminal. You can use any one of the methods listed above.
This feature can be helpful if you want to enhance the aesthetics of the interface and customize the Windows Terminal depending on your preference.
Further, customize your computer’s built-in settings by referring to the related articles below.
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