Windows 10: Turn On or Off Translucent Selection Rectangle on Desktop in Windows

How to: Turn On or Off Translucent Selection Rectangle on Desktop in Windows

How to Turn On or Off Translucent Selection Rectangle on Desktop in Windows


The translucent selection rectangle is the box you see when you left click and hold, and then drag the pointer over items to select them when you release the left click.

If you like, you can turn off showing the translucent selection rectangle on your desktop.

When the translucent selection rectangle is turned off for the desktop, you will only see an outline selection rectangle on the desktop instead.

*note This will not affect showing the translucent selection rectangle in File Explorer.

This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off showing the translucent selection rectangle on the desktop for your account in Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.


CONTENTS:

• Option One: Turn On or Off Translucent Selection Rectangle on Desktop in Visual Effects Performance Options
• Option Two: Turn On or Off Translucent Selection Rectangle on Desktop using a REG file

EXAMPLE: "Show translucent selection rectangle" On and Off for desktop











OPTION ONE [/i] Turn On or Off Translucent Selection Rectangle on Desktop in Visual Effects Performance Options
1. Press the Win+R keys to open Run, type SystemPropertiesPerformance.exe into Run, click/tap on OK to directly open the Visual Effects tab in Performance Options.

2. Check (on - default) or uncheck (off) Show translucent selection rectangle for what you want, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)









OPTION TWO [/i] Turn On or Off Translucent Selection Rectangle on Desktop using a REG file

*note The downloadable .reg files below will modify the DWORD value in the registry key below.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

ListviewAlphaSelect DWORD

0 = Off
1 = On


1. Do step 2 (on) or step 3 (off) below for what you would like to do.


2. To Turn On Show Translucent Selection Rectangle on Desktop
*note This is the default setting.
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.

Turn_ON_Show_translucent_selection_rectangle.reg

Download

3. To Turn Off Show Translucent Selection Rectangle on Desktop
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.

Turn_OFF_Show_translucent_selection_rectangle.reg

Download
4. Save the .reg file to your desktop.

5. Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.

6. When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

7. restart the computer to apply.

8. You could now delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.

That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials

• How to Change Color of Translucent Selection Rectangle in Windows
• How to Change Visual Effects Settings in Windows 10

:)

 

Still no way to disable "Show Translucent Selection Rectangle"?

Hello risug,

You could still use an option in the tutorial below to turn on or off "Show Translucent Selection Rectangle", but it doesn't affect it in File Explorer.

*Arrow Show Translucent Selection Rectangle - Windows 7 Help Forums

 

Laggy translucent selection rectangle at 4K resolution

Hello, I would like to report an issue with the blue selection rectangle - it lags terribly on 4K resolution desktop when selecting a large area. I believe this is a consequence of some coding error since this issue occurs only on Windows (even on fresh,
clean installed) - if I boot ubuntu 16.04 on the very same PC rig and screen, I dont experience any lag at all at Ubuntu's translucent selection rectangle therefore I believe that this issue can be easily fixed. Thank you for support.

 

Translucent focus rectangle when hovering over selections


Whenever I point the mouse over something, be it desktop icons, mozilla buttons etc, I get this translucent focus. How do I get rid of it?

 

Selection Rectangle Wierdness

Dear Microsoft Helpdesk

Please be helpful *crosses-fingers* *does rain-dance*

What I am running

Attached is a screenshot of System


Issue

I have an issue with the selection rectangle cursor it doesn't have a translucent rectangle



What I have tried

(Un/re)selecting "Show translucent selection rectangle" and (re)applying.

Selecting the radial button "Let Windows choose what's best for my computer" and (re)applying

Changing Themes

Resetting PC

Clean Install

Updates?

No more to do =)

Replicate?

System -> System Properties -> Performance Options -> Check “Show translucent selection rectangle” -> Click and drag the desktop as shown in ‘image.png’

TLDR?

See “image.png” attachment

See “system.png” attachment

--

Thanks,

 

Selection Rectangle Wierdness

Hi Parker,



Welcome to Microsoft Community and thank you for posting. We appreciate your interest in Windows 10.



As per description I understand that you have an issue in setting Performance options on Windows 10.



I would like to inform that when you choose “Let Windows choose what's best for my computer” option as the name says, the system will only choose the default settings on to your computer.

Either you select “Show translucent selection rectangle” option or not does not make any changes.

I suggest you to choose only “Show translucent selection rectangle” and not “Let Windows choose what's best for my computer option”.





Hope it helps. Feel free to contact us for any further queries on Windows Operating System.