Microsoft-ui-xaml: Question: Acrylic not working on Windows 10 2004

[DavidZhang73]

Basic information

I have just updated my Windows 10 to 2004 (19041.330).

This is a i7 7700HQ, GTX1060 laptop with Intel GPU driver(27.20.100.8280) and NVIDIA GPU driver(446.14).

Bug

On my computer

The Acrylic tab in _XAML Controls Gallery_ app looks like

And the start menu, all UWP applications that uses acrylic are not working correctly.

However, the taskbar does work well.

Online reports

There are some related online reports,

1. Acrylic transparency not working
2. Acrylic Effects Not Working On Windows 10 Virtual Installation
3. Windows10任务栏透明的小研究

What I have tried

1. Turn on and off Settings app > Personalization > Colors > Transparency effects, and reboot several times(including first shutdown then boot).

2. Reinstall(update) Intel and NVIDIA GPU drivers.

3. Apply and unapply the following Windows Registry

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
"UseOLEDTaskbarTransparency"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Dwm]
"ForceEffectMode"=dword:00000001

My guess

I am pretty sure that, no long ago, Acrylic works fine, but I could not remember when it broke.

According to the Doc on usability-and-adaptability. The system needs to satisfy the following requirements

1. When the user turns off transparency in Settings > Personalization > Color, which I have tried several times.
2. When Battery Saver mode is activated, which I am pretty sure that I am not in saver mode.
3. When the app runs on low-end hardware. Since Windows 7 needs to run winsat to determine whether aero effect can be applied, so I also run, and the score is 8.5, however, nothing has changed to the issue.

After a week of searching and experiments, I can still not find any useful information. Could anyone here help me out?

Sorry if this question is out of the range for this repo.

[StephenLPeters]

@DavidZhang73 Have you checked the Transparency Setting in Ease of Access > Display? I think it is the same setting exposed in multiple places, but I think its worth a try.

@codendone and @stevewri FYI.

[DavidZhang73]

@StephenLPeters Thanks for your reply. I am pretty sure that Transparency Setting is on.

[arcadepro]

Try changing the colour range in the driver control panel to limited then back to full rgb. Or pick some low resolution and revert back.

Performing this dance fixes it on Nvidia for me. I'm not sure of the exact remedy as I've just been experimenting with it today. I also don't think it's limited to build 2004 since I had it in prior builds and just disabled transparency rather than have the inconsistency.

The problem seems to be that the acrylic texture is not loading? or perhaps it's failing to enumerate the correct texture format due to incorrect color data being returned? When this bug occurs the taskbar IS transparent but doesn't have the textured milky appearance like it's supposed to have. (action center and other apps are untextured during this bug; as if transparency is disabled)

[DavidZhang73]

@arcadepro It really works for me!!! Thanks a lot!!!

So, the solution is indeed change the color range in the driver control panel to full and reboot. In my case, I do not have color range setting in Nvidia Control Panel, but I found an similar one in Intel Graphic Control Panel called Input Range (in Chinese 输入范围). I change it to full (in Chinese 全) and reboot, it works.

Thanks again!!!

[Jehoel]

@arcadepro I'm running NVIDIA cards too, but I don't see any setting in NVIDIA's control panel named "Color range" and nothing named "Limited" or "Full RGB" - can you share a screenshot?

This is what I see:

I had a support chat session with NVIDIA and their rep said it was a bug in Windows, and nothing to do with their drivers - but the rep didn't point me to any resources to help.

Additionally, Power Saver is not on - I currently have the "Ultimate Performance" plan enabled (who names these things?).

---

I've also cross-posted this to SuperUser: https://superuser.com/questions/1599755/why-are-windows-10-transparency-effects-temperamental

[arcadepro]

Look in the _Change Resolution_ menu. Scroll down. There should be 4 boxes that allow you to change Nvidia colour settings. The bug has seemingly cleared up for me. I'm not sure what fixed it but I'm pretty sure it is/was a windows bug related to the glass texture not being loaded correctly. (456.71/19041.610)

[Jehoel]

@arcadepro I tried that just now but unfortunately it did not work for me at all.

I don't believe it's a matter of any glass "texture" going missing (the acrylic effect is a shader program in the DWM, not a texture loaded from disk anyway). It's possible you had a different underlying cause to mine - but in my case at least the lack-of-glass on my system is associated with the hover-effects on the start menu being nerfed - which is what Windows 10 does when it's in low-power mode, so as far as I can tell, in my case at least, something in my computer is convincing Windows that it's running in low-power mode, despite my computer's insatiable power-draw.

[arcadepro]

As a belated follow-up to this you could try disabling the blur effect on the windows log in screen. Either using regedit or the app Winaero Tweaker. For some reason on my system it works as as an inverse toggle. i.e. if logon screen blur is on, all other blur is off. Possibly a broken Windows setting somewhere since this install is an in place upgrade over a day one Windows 7 build. I'll do a clean install someday.

[Jehoel]

@arcadepro Interesting. Years ago, I set a Group Policy on my machine to disable the login-screen background (because I hate caves...) and just show a plain solid colour - but the GP is always consistent, whereas the acrylic/transparency-effects are temperamental.

However, my boss tentatively approved my request for an MSDN Subscription (bloody $6000 for the first year and $2600/yr every year for life afterwards...), but because it includes _complimentary support_ if that goes through then I'll gladly file a Professional (with a capital P) support ticket with MSFT for them to get to the bottom of this - and if they confirm it's a bug I get my support credit back! :D