Windows 10 is a service, which means that Microsoft regularly releases minor and major updates to the operating system to address issues and add new features.
Over the past two and half years, Microsoft has pushed out a few major updates to Windows 10. These major updates or feature updates didn’t bring any UI changes to the operating system. But this time around, with Windows 10 April 2018 Update (version 1803), Microsoft wants to improve the user interface.
New builds of Windows 10 sport the Fluent design. You can now see the fluent design in the Start, action center, Settings app, share flyout, Edge (title bar), and some other areas of Windows 10. Microsoft may or may not apply the fluent design to all areas of the operating system, but the new UI surely enhances the look of the UI.
For instance, the left-pane of the Settings pane, which was boring before, now supports acrylic and you can now see the fluent design in the Settings app.
For most, the new fluent design is elegant, but not everyone likes it.
If you also prefer to have the old UI of Windows 10 without the acrylic, there is an option under the Settings app to turn off the fluent design. That is, you can turn off the fluent design by simply turning off transparency effects.
Enable or disable the fluent design in Windows 10
Complete the directions given below to disable or turn off the fluent design in Windows 10.
Step 1: Right-click on an empty spot on the desktop and then click Personalize. This action will open Personalization category in the Settings app.
Step 2: Click on Colors.
Step 3: In the More options section, move the Transparency effects switch to the off position to disable the fluent design. To enable the fluent design again, turn on Transparency effects switch.
Changes will reflect immediately. No need to sign out or reboot your PC.
You might also like to read our how to make Start menu transparent and taskbar fully transparent in Windows 10 guides.
Ralph says
With buggy 1803, it now no longer works at all on some computers, while it works just fine on others
Jon says
Hi, is there any way (regedit or otherwise) to disable the taskbar’s acrylic blur effect without actually disabling the transparency? Prior to this April update I had a semitransparent task bar through which you could actually read items/windows that sunk below it, which I made some use of. Are my only options now to have it opaque or the worse blurred transparent version?