How to Enable Acrylic Transparency and Custom Background Opacity in Windows Terminal

Windows Terminal has become the premier command-line host application for Windows 11 and Windows 10, replacing the legacy console with modern GPU acceleration, multi-tab workflows, and custom colour schemes. While its default solid colour themes are functional, many developers and system administrators prefer the aesthetics of semi-transparent terminal windows that reveal underlying desktop wallpapers or code editors.

Windows Terminal features native support for Microsoft’s Fluent Design Acrylic material. Rather than simple translucent glass, acrylic applies dynamic background blurring and light diffusion that keeps terminal text sharp and readable while displaying subtle background depth. You can configure opacity and acrylic effects globally or per-profile using both the graphical settings interface and settings.json.

Enabling Acrylic Transparency via the Graphical Settings Interface

The built-in Settings UI provides an interactive slider to dial in your preferred opacity level.

1. Launch Windows Terminal on your PC.
2. Click the downward arrow ⌵ located next to the new tab button in the tab bar and select Settings (or press Ctrl+,).
3. Under the Profiles section in the left sidebar, choose whether you want transparency applied to a specific profile (such as Windows PowerShell or Ubuntu (WSL)) or globally across all consoles by selecting Defaults.
4. Under the chosen profile, click the Appearance tab along the top.
5. Scroll down to the Transparency section:
   • Toggle the switch for Enable acrylic material to the On position.
   • Use the Background opacity slider to choose a transparency level. Setting opacity between 65% and 80% is generally optimal for balancing desktop visibility with high command-line contrast.
6. Click the Save button in the bottom-right corner.

Fine-Tuning Transparency via settings.json

Power users who sync configurations across machines can configure acrylic parameters directly in the underlying JSON configuration file.

1. Open Windows Terminal Settings (Ctrl+,).
2. Click Open JSON file in the lower-left corner of the sidebar (or press Ctrl+Shift+, to open it in your default code editor).
3. Locate the profiles object, then navigate to the defaults block (or a specific profile GUID).
4. Add or edit the useAcrylic and opacity key-value pairs:

   "defaults": {
       "useAcrylic": true,
       "opacity": 75
   }

   The opacity value accepts an integer between 0 (completely invisible) and 100 (fully opaque).
5. Save the file (Ctrl+S). Windows Terminal instantly reloads and applies the acrylic blur without needing a restart.

Troubleshooting Missing Acrylic Effects in Windows 11

• Windows Transparency Effects disabled system-wide: Acrylic material requires system-level transparency to be enabled in Windows 11. Navigate to Settings > Personalisation > Colours and verify that Transparency effects is toggled On.
• Battery Saver mode: When a laptop enters Battery Saver mode, Windows automatically disables acrylic blur to conserve GPU power, temporarily reverting the terminal to standard opacity or solid colours.
• Virtual Machine or Remote Desktop: Acrylic effects may fall back to standard non-blurred transparency in RDP sessions or virtual machines where hardware GPU acceleration is unavailable.