Feature Request: Standard Opacity options like the traditional console.

[NOFUNEVER]

Perhaps I overlooked it browsing through the json file but i didn't see another means to achieve transparency and i'm not a fan of the acrylic effects blurring factor or the fact that it turns off when the window is not selected. The traditional console provides for a static opacity just like in most nix envs, i'd hope it's just a matter of time before it's implemented here?

[DHowett-MSFT]

It's not supported right now, but it's definitely something we don't want to lose track of. We'll need to do a bit of heavy lifting to get the composition visuals set up right, but it is "in plan."

[zadjii-msft]

See also #593, which has additional info.

[silverqx]

I like classic transparency, but never used acrylic, one of the must-have feature for me :)

[TCB13]

+1 on this!

[zadjii-msft]

Please do not "+1" issues, it creates unnecessary noise. There's a perfectly good +1 button right here:

[TCB13]

@zadjii-msft with microsoft there is no such thing as a "perfectly good +1 button", even when making noise nobody really cares or listens to anything. I guess anyone who has ever used any Microsoft product knows this.

But hey, I do get the point. Sorry.

[DHowett-MSFT]

@TCB13 Just so you know, we're all actual people here sitting in our offices looking at our inboxes, and our triage queue, and the github issues list. We're reading each one of these issues, and we feel things about them and the things people say in them. Please try to avoid being mean.

[TCB13]

@DHowett-MSFT @zadjii-msft

The fact that acrylic was included instead of opacity really means that nobody actually considered the usability of this terminal. Looks to me that some PM just said "oh transparent things look cool, lets make it even cooler and add a blur to it!". Terminal apps / windows aren't usually transparent because it looks great, they are transparent because it allows you to see other stuff behind the window - an useful feature as most user will agree.

Maybe you should ask the other actual people in your company why I was so aggressive in my other comment. :)

[mdtauk]

@TCB13 there were voices asking for Acrylic to be added to the Command terminal, and at the time it was not possible for backwards compatibility reasons, but a new Terminal makes that possible.

The issue with this new version is that Opacity is not immediately possible with the new Windowing APIs which this is using, and is something the team is aware of, and will try to make possible.

There is no need to be so dismissive, just because it is not a feature you personally want or need.

[iCodeSometime]

This would be very useful.

In addition to what's already been said, the ability to have the window acrylic when focused and transparent when unfocused would be very nice as it would make that transition less jarring.

[lkspencer]

agreed. I personally want the regular opacity setting because I like very dark backgrounds with a slight transparency. When I tried using the acrylic options it made the background too bright for my liking. I'm a vampire I guess 🤷‍♂.

Glad to hear that it's at least planned. Thanks for making this tool and I look forward to future releases with more features like this one.

[oneliey]

agreed. I personally think that the window turns straight to solid color suddenly when it loses focus. Traditional transparency is a better transition
Glad to hear that it's at least planned. Thanks for making this tool and I look forward to future releases with more features like this one.

[silverqx]

The true is, that I will not use console, when there will not be classic transparency :), it's one must to have feature for me :)

[ghost]

this is not related to this issue but rather to sets of posts.

CLICK ME

There is no need to be so dismissive, just because it is not a feature you personally want or need.

when people are seem to be way out of touch with the common expectations of majority of app users, they get passionate responses.

and transparency has been available for a long time, so its not a single person pressuring the devs to please one single person. as your last statement implies, for some reason; feel free to edit it.

maybe TCB13 was rude or aggressive in some other thread or occassion? as its mostly harmless hyperbole in #603 (comment)

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also, silverqx, see #603 (comment) #603 (comment) and how long it has been since https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/tags?after=RS2-final been since that first public release. It seems, it will take a long time.

don't do it twice, see #603 (comment)

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from #603 (comment),

iCodeSometime, no acrylic please. just let acrylic be invisible to those that want to use transparency. the way cmd handles it is nice.

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for cmd, I prefer 80% to 95% opacity, i.e, transparency. they are the same thing.

acrylic is translucency, I think. I will have to test as I disable it on all Windows machines that I use.

---

regards ratatoeey

[zadjii-msft]

So for the record, I've played with this. A rudimentary implementation isn't super tricky, but it's not... polished. The entire window becomes equally transparent including XAML controls (tab row, dialogs, etc.). I think from an architecture standpoint, it would be exceptionally tricky to try and get just the "Terminal" content transparent, and even then, all Panes would be equally transparent, including separators, and dialogs would also still be transparent.

Weirdly enough, the MenuFlyout for the new tab dropdown doesn't become transparent, which raises more questions.

Honestly in my opinion, the experience feels a little unpolished. If this is what people really want, I'm not going to say no, but I also want to make sure we're shipping something high quality. Hence why I'm leaving it on the backlog, to try and find a better solution.

[DHowett]

Alas, indeed.

It required some OS changes. We are working to get those backported! 😄

[silverqx]

On what it depends? ok, thx for the reply, I think it is a great step forward, 1.12 is amazing thx

[joaoquentalgomes]

Any idea when this will be released in a stable version?

[DHowett]

@Quental this will be released in a stable version on our normal "preview -> stable" schedule (so, approximately 6 weeks from now.)

EDIT: assuming that there are no huge issues with it.

[jthoward64]

On what it depends? ok, thx for the reply, I think it is a great step forward, 1.12 is amazing thx

see #11180

[silverqx]

It is not clear on what it depends from that PR, it may be Microsoft.Internal.Windows.Terminal.ThemeHelpers 0.4.210908001, but google is quiet about this package.

[DHowett]

There is a XAML feature in Windows 11 that allows us to remove the "emergency black background"[1] from a window.

[1]: xaml has an emergency background because UWP applications aren't supposed to be fully transparent

[silverqx]

And it will be available through what? new .net version or through new vcredis version, that is what I meant on what it depends, which package or which new version of WHAT will provide the patch. Not technical details how it was implemented 😀

[DHowett]

It depends on a new version of Windows. It will be distributed through Windows.
If we can get it backported to Windows 10, it will be released through Windows Update.

[silverqx]

Ok, thank you, I was only curious, it doesn't matter where is from the patch, somewhere in the windows core maybe 🙂, or somewhere.

[all500234765]

plz keep as up to date! Looking forward to switching to windows terminal, but currently can't because of transparency issues

[silverqx]

I can not wait too for this, I'm super excited about this. 😀 It should be released after 1. december

[ChrTall]

@DHowett Can you tell us how likely it is, that you will be able to backport it?
Is this something you can influence or decided by upstream?
Sadly my 7th gen Intel is not supported by Windows 11 and probably won´t be in the future.

[zadjii-msft]

Can you tell us how likely it is, that you will be able to backport it?

Nope. We're working through it right now. We're putting the weight of our team on it, and we'll give updates whenever we have them. Unfortunately, with the holidays coming up, I'd suspect the OS update pipeline to be a little slower than usual, so bear with us.

[zadjii-msft]

The comment you're referring to is discussing the timeframe for the Preview -> Release channel for the Terminal itself, not the servicing timeframe.

With the holidays, we delayed the Preview->Release promotion anyways (there wasn't too much in the last 6 weeks to justify another release).

Additionally, and totally separately, the internal servicing pipleline hasn't ingested this yet. Servicing the OS takes a while - I honestly don't even know how to guess how long that would take.

We'll be sure to update this thread once there's something to share however!

[joaoquentalgomes]

The comment you're referring to is discussing the timeframe for the Preview -> Release channel for the Terminal itself, not the servicing timeframe.

With the holidays, we delayed the Preview->Release promotion anyways (there wasn't too much in the last 6 weeks to justify another release).

Additionally, and totally separately, the internal servicing pipleline hasn't ingested this yet. Servicing the OS takes a while - I honestly don't even know how to guess how long that would take.

We'll be sure to update this thread once there's something to share however!

Since it was delayed, any idea when this will be released (for win11 ofc)? Thanks!

[zadjii-msft]

Probably in January some time, but don't hold me to that. Like I said, we don't really want to make a release unless there's actually something to release. There isn't all that much in 1.13 at the moment. We're trying to also line up 1.12 stable with some internal milestones, so I don't think we can actually push 1.12 stable past early Feb.

[joaoquentalgomes]

Probably in January some time, but don't hold me to that. Like I said, we don't really want to make a release unless there's actually something to release. There isn't all that much in 1.13 at the moment. We're trying to also line up 1.12 stable with some internal milestones, so I don't think we can actually push 1.12 stable past early Feb.

Thanks for the update! And it's safe to expect this feature in 1.12 stable, right?

[NobleDraconian]

@zadjii-msft Will this feature be supported on Windows 10? I just took a look at the preview build that has #11180, but it mentions it's only supported on Windows 11.

[jthoward64]

Can you tell us how likely it is, that you will be able to backport it?

Nope. We're working through it right now. We're putting the weight of our team on it, and we'll give updates whenever we have them. Unfortunately, with the holidays coming up, I'd suspect the OS update pipeline to be a little slower than usual, so bear with us.

@NobleDraconian see above

[zadjii-msft]

As I mentioned above, we're working on servicing the necessary OS side fixes to Windows 10 to make it work, but those take a lot longer than Terminal releases.

[jthoward64]

As I mentioned above, we're working on servicing the necessary OS side fixes to Windows 10 to make it work, but those take a lot longer than Terminal releases.

I know its a bit drastic, but maybe consider locking this issue to collaborators only? There hasn't really been any productive discussion and wont be any more until you have an update.