Enable transparent background in Windows Terminal

Here is another post about fun and helpful Windows Terminal tips and tricks in the series. Here's a list of the posts in this series.

• Enable transparent background in Windows Terminal
• Set images as background in Windows Terminal
• Set the default starting directory in Windows Terminal
• Install custom themes in Windows Terminal
• Using third-party terminals within Windows Terminal
• Making Windows Terminal look awesome with oh-my-posh

Update 2022:

Version 1.12 or later of Windows Terminal now supports FULL unblurred transparency. Unfortunately, this only works on Windows 11.

Here's what it looks like with the full transparency enabled. You can see through the terminal window to the underlying windows and areas—much to like here.

Open the Terminal settings.

To open the settings, you can either hit ctrl+, (Windows), or go to the dropdown-arrow in the navigation bar and select settings.

You'll see your settings.json or get a chance to click and open it in your favorite editor, and this is where you'll make the changes.

Full transparency

To enable the full transparency, define the following settings in your settins.json:

Here's an example:

// cropped... 
    
 "defaults": 
        {
            "font": 
            {
                "face": "Cascadia Code PL"
            },
            
            "startingDirectory": "%SystemDrive%/code/",

            "opacity": 65,
            "useAcrylic": false
        },

// cropped...

Here's how full transparency looks. You can see through the terminal window to the underlying surface:

Opaque/acrylic transparency

To enable acrylic transparency, you can define the useAcrylic boolean property, along with the opacity which is a number to specify the transparency between 0 and 100.

Here's an example:

// cropped... 
    
 "defaults": 
        {
            "font": 
            {
                "face": "Cascadia Code PL"
            },
            
            "startingDirectory": "%SystemDrive%/code/",

            "opacity": 55,
            "useAcrylic": true
        },

// cropped...

Here's what it looks like with the acrylic opacity enabled.

Troubleshooting

If you don't get your terminal to be transparent, this could be because of configurations in Windows.

1. Enable Windows Transparency Effects

Make sure you have the Transparency Effects enabled in Windows.

You'll find this in the Windows Settings if you just search for "Transparency" from your start menu.

2. It may not work when you're running on Battery Saver

When you're running on battery saver mode, the transparency feature in Windows is disabled by default.

Make sure you're not running on the battery saver mode:

Happy Terminaling!