How to enable transparent background on Windows Terminal

Yes, you can use the Command Prompt, PowerShell, and Linux with transparent background on Windows Terminal, and here's how to enable the feature.

Windows Terminal acrylic (transparent) background
Windows Terminal acrylic (transparent) background

Windows Terminal is your primary command line experience to run Command Prompt, PowerShell, and Linux on Windows 10, and it is fully customizable.

Alongside the ability to set custom themes, change the color of background or set an image as background, you can also apply an acrylic background to add transparency effects with blur and fine noise textures part of the Microsoft Fluent Design System.

In this guide, you’ll learn the steps to enable and configure the acrylic background effect on Windows Terminal on Windows 10.

How to enable acrylic background on Windows Terminal

To enable the transparent background on the terminal, use these steps:

  1. Open Windows Terminal.

  2. Click the menu (down-arrow) button next to a tab.

  3. Click the Settings option.

    Quick tip: It’s recommended to use the Visual Studio Code to open the settings, because it includes the JSON schema which will make it easier to change the settings.
  4. Under the “defaults” section, copy and paste the following command to enable transparency in all command line apps:

    "useAcrylic": true, 
    "acrylicOpacity": 0.5

    Windows Terminal with transparent background for all apps
    Windows Terminal with transparent background for all apps
  5. Under the list section, select the profile (app) to set the acrylic background. For example, under "commandline": "powershell.exe" insert a comma (,) at the end of the line, and copy and paste the following lines:

    "useAcrylic": true, 
    "acrylicOpacity": 0.5
    

    Windows Terminal with transparent background for Command Prompt
    Windows Terminal with transparent background for Command Prompt
  6. (Optional) In the acrylicOpacity settings change the value of select the transparency level. For example, 0.6 will make the background less transparent, and 0.4 will make the background more transparent.

  7. Save the file to apply the changes.

Once you complete the steps, you can start using the Windows Terminal with an acrylic background for a specific app or all the command line apps depending on your configuration.

About the author

Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 14 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 20 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me.