This topic has not yet been rated Rate this topic

How to: Create Transparent Windows Forms

Visual Studio 2010

With Microsoft Windows XP, you can control the opacity of windows that are displayed. To make a form more transparent, adjust its Opacity property.

Note
As transparent forms are only supported in Windows 2000 or later, Windows Forms will be completely opaque when run on older operating systems, such as Windows 98, regardless of the value set for the Opacity property. The dialog boxes and menu commands you see might differ from those described in Help depending on your active settings or edition. To change your settings, choose Import and Export Settings on the Tools menu. For more information, see Working with Settings.

Note

As transparent forms are only supported in Windows 2000 or later, Windows Forms will be completely opaque when run on older operating systems, such as Windows 98, regardless of the value set for the Opacity property.

The dialog boxes and menu commands you see might differ from those described in Help depending on your active settings or edition. To change your settings, choose Import and Export Settings on the Tools menu. For more information, see Working with Settings.

To control the opacity of Windows Forms

In the Properties window, set the Opacity property to a value between 0.0 (complete transparency) and 1.0 (complete opacity).

To control the opacity of Windows Forms programmatically

In a method, set the Opacity property to a percentage between 0.0 (complete transparency) and 1.0 (complete opacity). The Opacity property is a Double value type.

Copy

Public Sub MakeSeeThru()
   frmTransparentForm.Opacity = 0.83
End Sub

Copy

public void MakeSeeThru()
{
   frmTransparentForm.Opacity = 0.83;
}

C++

Copy

public:
   void MakeSeeThru()
   {
      frmTransparentForm->Opacity = 0.83;
   }

Did you find this helpful? Yes No

Not accurate

Not enough depth

Need more code examples

(2000 characters remaining)

Community Content Add

FAQ

How to: Create Transparent Windows Forms

To control the opacity of Windows Forms

To control the opacity of Windows Forms programmatically

Tasks

Reference

Other Resources