Mica for Everyone

Hello everyone,

as there's no thread for this program yet, I'd like to open it to show some basic functionality.

The program allows you to add Mica effects (to a certain extent) to programs that do not have it on their own. The program is mainly made for Win11, however some of the functionality does work on Win10.

Once you download (you can get it from their github page) and run it, you will get this window

This program works by using rules. You have

1. the Global Rule which will apply to all programs (except the specific ones listed bellow)
2. process rules (which apply only to the specific process)
3. and class rules (which apply to a class of programs, for example all console windows)

So for example if you want most programs to just have the transparent titlebar, but you want only Audacity to have it on the whole window, you can set the global rule like the screenshot above, then create a specific rule for the Audacity process, and in that rule turn on additional blur.



Inside the rules you have a few options and toggles:

• The titlebar color is self explanatory, you can set it to System default, program default, or light/dark.
• The Backdrop type allows you to pick which type of blur effect do you want; Default, None, Mica (the Windows 11 style blur which only shows the desktop background), or Acrylic (which shows everything bellow that surface).

Bellow that you have the two advanced toggles:

• Extend Frame Into Client Area is used in some cases where the backdrop effect is rendered on the window backgrounds.
• Blur Behind makes the window translucent and blurred.

From my experience, both of these toggles achieve similar results (they make most of the window transparent), but with varying success. They work best on old school Win32 programs which use default UI components, however it can sometimes work on newer programs. So try enabling 'em one by one and see which one works the best for you.

The end result can look something like this (this is the default Windows Explorer) - btw the image compression on the forum doesn't do it justice, it looks better on it's own

Thanks for sharing not really my thing though

If I add Windows Explorer ( extend frame to ... ) , sometimes I get unreadable text on some windows ( example: when u try to download a file and save it )
Do u have this issue too?

Elisyan said:

If I add Windows Explorer ( extend frame to ... ) , sometimes I get unreadable text on some windows ( example: when u try to download a file and save it )
Do u have this issue too?

Click to expand...

Yes I think that option makes some text have the Mica/Acrylic effect, so if your background is bright, it can be tough to read. For me it doesn't show up in he save as window, but it shows up in the file/folder properties window.

btw how did u mange to change the address bar? mine is always gray :-(

Elisyan said:

btw how did u mange to change the address bar? mine is always gray :-(

Click to expand...

Not sure, I didn't do anything special. I have both advanced options turned on and the effect set to Acrylic. Maybe it's because I'm on 22621.

Unfocused windows will turn to grey until I click on them
Idk if it's windows behavior or MFE
Do u know anything about this? maybe a solution?
( Sorry for my numerous questions! I just found this thread and I had some questions about MFE )

Elisyan said:

Unfocused windows will turn to grey until I click on them
Idk if it's windows behavior or MFE
Do u know anything about this? maybe a solution?
( Sorry for my numerous questions! I just found this thread and I had some questions about MFE )

Click to expand...

Yes unfortunately that is the default behavior in Windows - only the app in focus has active blur effects. However if you enable both advanced options, it does override it, but may cause visibility problems.

There was a new update a couple of days ago, v1.1.0.0 which now allows you to set your corner preference (both globally and for specific apps) from square, rounded, or slightly rounded. So you don't have to use Valinet's disable rounded corner DWM hack anymore.

Ok here's a big update for this. The Rectify11 team has made a custom msstyles theme that greatly improves MFE. Now almost all of the win32 parts of Windows use transparency. Also many apps that use the msstyles.
It also improves how it looks. There's way less blurry and unreadable text.

You can find the theme on their discord (the website is down ATM, they're releasing v3 of their customization pack soon) along with other stuff they make.

MaRio said:

Ok here's a big update for this. The Rectify11 team has made a custom msstyles theme that greatly improves MFE. Now almost all of the win32 parts of Windows use transparency. Also many apps that use the msstyles.
It also improves how it looks. There's way less blurry and unreadable text.
View attachment 35945
You can find the theme on their discord (the website is down ATM, they're releasing v3 of their customization pack soon) along with other stuff they make.

Click to expand...

Hello my comrade! How did you manage to make the properties window transparent? I got practically the entire system except these specific windows like the property one.