IDEA: Small App To Turn Background Windows Transparent Automatically

[y0himba]

Just a little app that sits in the tray, and automatically set unfocused windows to a user specified transparency.  I ahve tried quite a few apps and none of them auto set a specified transparency to windows in the background.

[skrommel]

Try this one!

TransOther - Make all windows but the active one transparent.

Features:
- User defined transparency level.
- Can ignore always ontop windows.
- Won't make parent windows transparent while children is active.

You'll find the downloads and more info at Skrommel Software.

Skrommel

[y0himba]

It works perfectly!  I don't even mind editing the ini file, 1-255 was a bit confusing, I was thinking 0%-100% transparent.  I could care less though!  This is perfect!  I now have a functional mockup of Windows Vista Running on WinXP!

[lanux128]

hi there

Skrommel, wasn't there a similar program called Ghoster also by you...?

best regards,
lanux

[y0himba]

It was similar, but the effect was achieved differently.  This is much faster and easier on resources actually.  I did like the "restart" option on ghoster, as well as the option to ignore the taskbar (always on top windows).

Here is the start of my Windows Vista mockup on WinXP if anyone is interested:


http://www.y0himba.net/desk.jpg-Large version:  1280x1024 | 698 KB

[skrommel]

Try TransOther v.1.1!

Remember to delete your existing TransOther.ini-file when downloading!

Skrommel

[mouser]

just a reminder to everyone that you can show your appreication to skrommel by making a direct donation to him from his "1-hour software page."

(ps. even if a specific program isn't exactly what you need, supporting his efforts can only help us all when our time comes to need a little skrommel utility

[y0himba]

just a reminder to everyone that you can show your appreciation to skrommel by making a direct donation to him from his "1-hour software page."

Ad you know I will as soon as Xmas is over and I recover from my 3 kids.  11 year old that wants a cell phone ad a new video card and a larger HDD and an MP3 player...and...and...then there is the 7 year old and 5 year old and the wife.  Question is, when does the 40 year old kid gets some toys?  I will donate again.  Probably again after that.  After that, I might just donate.

[skywalka]

There is a similar program here: http://www.marcandre.info/focusalpha.php
But it doesn't have the options that TransOther has.

[y0himba]

It's funny how that application (FocusAlpha) was released right after TransOther....  I did some serious web searching fr that exact type of application.  I visit over 40 freeware archives nightly, blah blah.  Kind makes me wonder.  (/me breaks out the tinfoil hat)

[skywalka]

FocusAlpha's page says it was released in February.

[mouser]

any idea you have has been thought of and implemented by another people.  the only question is how many people, how long ago, and how good was there solution.

[y0himba]

You know, you are right   I love the Interweb

[xtekian]

transother makes lags windows a bit, and makes dragging windows and switching between windows really slow. i guess there's no way around that until vista comes out?

[y0himba]

Odd, doesn't seem to do that here.  This machine has an AthlonXP 2600+, 1GB RAM, ATI Raedon All-In-Wonder 9200 128 MB VRAM

[y0himba]

Crossposted:  How about combining Minimother with this application?  Here is Minimother:
http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=1113.0

[elpresi]

Hi skrommel,
thanks again for such a great utility :-)
Any chance that the taskbar could be excluded and not made transparent?
I am asking because that way I could set the transparency to 0 and still have access to the taskbar.
I also enjoy using this program along with the TaskswitchXP  utility as the previews in that utility are not affected by the transparency in TransOther.

[jojo99]

I tried this yesterday on WinXP SP3.  Seemed to be working well at first.  But then I discovered that when I didn't have any windows in view, that the desktop lost it's wallpaper.  I had to do a refresh on the desktop.  But then if I went back to my auto-hid taskbar on the right side of the screen, the desktop wallpaper would again disappear.  So I had to stop running this little app.

[doctorfrog]

necrobump! I'm trying this app out more to explore how useful transparency is than anything else.

Skrommel, is there a way to exclude specific applications from being made transparent? I use bbLean/bb4win, and this app makes everything about it transparent, even the desktop background.