The Blue Desktop Box
In Windows 10, when you click and drag your mouse cursor across an empty area of the desktop or within a File Explorer window, it creates a selection box. By default, this box is filled with a translucent blue color to clearly highlight the files or icons you are currently selecting. This is controlled by the “Show translucent selection rectangle” visual effect setting.
While this blue overlay makes it very obvious what you are selecting, it requires your graphics card to continuously render and blend the translucent color over your desktop background in real-time as you move your mouse. On very old PCs, laptops with weak integrated graphics, or systems operating under a heavy load, rendering this simple blue box can actually cause mouse lag or screen tearing. If you want a snappier, more minimalist feel, you can disable the color fill, reverting to a simple dotted outline (similar to older versions of Windows like Windows 98 or XP).
How to Turn Off the Translucent Selection Box
You can remove the blue fill via the advanced system performance settings.
- Click the Start button and type Advanced system settings.
- Select View advanced system settings from the search results. This will instantly open the System Properties window on the Advanced tab.
- In the Performance section at the top, click the Settings… button.
- A “Performance Options” window will appear. Ensure you are on the Visual Effects tab.
- Scroll through the list of effects and locate the checkbox labelled Show translucent selection rectangle.
- Click the checkbox to remove the checkmark.
- Click Apply, and then click OK.
The next time you drag a selection box on your desktop, it will just be a clean, crisp, dotted wireframe outline, instantly reducing the rendering load on your GPU.