Experience native look of Aero Glass interface on Windows 10+

This utility returns the full glass effect to the window frame like glass8, but with deeper control over blur, reflections, and theme integration.

Supported Windows versions

• Windows 10 1809-22H2
• Windows 11 21H2-26H2
• Windows Server 2022

[!IMPORTANT] OpenGlass is not supported on Windows 11 26H1 or any versions with build 28000 and above. Microsoft has removed the legacy MIL infrastructure in these builds, which makes it impossible for OpenGlass to continue supporting them. See #260 for details.

[!NOTE] OpenGlass only supports Windows builds from the General Availability channel. Builds from other channels (such as Canary, Dev, Release Preview and Beta) and Windows Server versions other than 2022 are NOT supported. Running on unsupported builds can crash DWM.

Who should use OpenGlass?

OpenGlass is for advanced users who are comfortable editing the Windows registry and troubleshooting DWM. If you want a simpler option, try DWMBlurGlass.

Quick start

Getting started

1. Installation: Download the latest Inno Setup package from Releases and follow the installer.
2. Configuration: Use the OpenGlass GUI or edit the registry directly (manual registry edits require restarting OpenGlass or changing system color settings to apply).
3. Reference: Review the release notes and source code to stay informed about behavior changes and technical updates.

[!TIP] Emergency Exit: Long press Ctrl+Win+Shift+Q to immediately terminate DWM if the system becomes unresponsive.

Reporting issues

If you encounter crashes or technical bugs:

1. Collect Dumps: Follow the WER guidelines to enable user-mode crash dumps if DWM fails.
2. Submit a Report: Open a GitHub issue with your Windows build, registry settings, steps to reproduce, and visual evidence (screenshots/recordings) if necessary.

Configuration

Methods: Use the OpenGlass GUI for convenience, or edit the registry directly for advanced control.

Registry locations:

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\DWM (per-user, checked first)
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\DWM (system-wide fallback)

Key inheritance: Missing keys use predefined defaults. Variants (e.g., XXXInactive, XXXMaximized) inherit from their base key if not explicitly set. Keys with the Override suffix take precedence and resist resets by uxtheme.dll on Windows 10+.

Registry reference

Colorization settings

Key Name	Type	Description
ColorizationColor(Override)

ColorizationColorInactive

ColorizationAfterglow(Override) | DWORD | ARGB color used for the glass effect, alpha channel is ignored.

ℹ️ ColorizationColorInactive is only used when GlassType = 0x0

ℹ️ ColorizationAfterglow(Override) is only used when GlassType = 0x1 | | ColorizationColorBalance(Override)

ColorizationAfterglowBalance(Override)

ColorizationBlurBalance(Override) | DWORD | Composition parameters for Windows 7 Aero effect shader.

ℹ️ Only used when GlassType = 0x1 | | GlassOpacity

GlassOpacityInactive | DWORD | The intensity of the color (0-100%). Default value is 63%.

ℹ️ Only used when GlassType = 0x0 | | ColorizationColorCaption

ColorizationColorCaptionInactive

ColorizationColorCaptionMaximized

ColorizationColorCaptionInactiveMaximized | DWORD | Color used for drawing window titles. Format is 0xBBGGRR.

• 0xFFFFFFFF = Determined by the system
• 0xFFFFFFFE = Read the `TEXTCOLOR` property from the current theme to obtain them.
• 0xFFFFFFFD = Automatically select the appropriate text colors based on `GlassType`. (default)

| | ColorizationOpaqueBlend | DWORD | Controls the transparency of glass effect (default = 0). | | ColorizationBaseTransparent

ColorizationBaseMaximized

ColorizationBaseOpaque | DWORD | ARGB base color used for color blending.

• 0xFFFFFFFE = Automatically select the appropriate base color based on `GlassType` (default).
• 0xFFFFFFFF = Read the `COLORIZATIONCOLOR` property from the current theme to obtain them.

| | ColorizationOpaqueBlendPriority | DWORD | Behavior of choosing opaque blend base color.

• 0x0 = Windows Vista.
• 0x1 = Windows 7.
• 0xFFFFFFFF = Automatically select the appropriate behavior based on `GlassType` (default).

ℹ️ For Windows Vista, ColorizationBaseMaximized is preferred, whereas for Windows 7 it is ColorizationBaseOpaque. | | ColorizationOpacity

ColorizationOpacityInactive

ColorizationOpacityMaximized

ColorizationOpacityInactiveMaximized | DWORD | (Additional) factors applied to glass color blending. (0%-100%).

• 0xFFFFFFFE = Automatically select the appropriate factors based on `GlassType`. (default).
• 0xFFFFFFFF = Read the `COLORIZATIONOPACITY` property from the current theme to obtain them.

|

Glass settings

Key Name	Type	Description
GlassType	DWORD	The type of glass effect.

• 0x0 = Windows Vista style blur (default).
• 0x1 = Windows 7 style blur.

| | GlassOverrideAccent | DWORD | Overrides accent blur surfaces with OpenGlass glass effects (e.g. the win10 taskbar). Default is 0. | | CustomThemeReflection | String | Path to file with texture that is stretched over whole desktop and rendered above glass regions (default is Aero Glass Win7 reflection texture) | | ColorizationGlassReflectionIntensity | DWORD | The overall multiplier applied to the intensity of reflection effect (0-100%). Default value is 0%.

opacity = base_opacity * intensity * 2 | | ColorizationGlassReflectionOpacity

ColorizationGlassReflectionOpacityInactive

ColorizationGlassReflectionOpacityMaximized

ColorizationGlassReflectionOpacityInactiveMaximized | DWORD | The base opacity of reflection effect (0-100%).

• 0xFFFFFFFE = Automatically select the appropriate factors based on `GlassType`. (default)
• 0xFFFFFFFF = Read the `OPACITY` property of `SQUEEGEREFLECTIONMAP` from the current theme to obtain them.

| | ColorizationGlassReflectionParallaxIntensity | DWORD | The parallax intensity of the reflection effect (e.g. when moving the windows side to side). Default value is 13%. | | ColorizationGlassReflectionPolicy | DWORD | Controls where reflections should be rendered (default = 0xFFFFFFFF).

• Titlebar = 1<<0
• Aero Peek = 1<<2
• Aero Snap = 1<<3 (ℹ️ Only effective in Win10)
• Render everywhere if possible = 0xFFFFFFFF

| | BlurDeviation | DWORD | Standard deviation for gaussian blur, default = 30 (which means σ = 3.0)

Value 0 results in non-blurred transparency.

ℹ️ Only effective when UseDirect3DRendering = 0x0 | | BlurOptimization | DWORD | Quality of gaussian blur

• 0x0 = Speed first (default)
• 0x1 = Balance
• 0x2 = Quality first

| | RoundRectRadius | DWORD | The radius of glass geometry (default = 0), Win8=0, Win7=6 | | CustomThemeMaterial | String | Path to file with texture that is rendered (tiled) above glass regions (default is Acrylic noise texture) | | MaterialOpacity | DWORD | opacity of material texture (default = 0) | | UseDirect3DRendering | DWORD | Set 1 to use d3d11 as glass renderer backend, and the blur radius is hardcoded to 3. (default = 0) |

Theme settings

Key Name	Type	Description
CaptionButtons	DWORD	Changes caption buttons sizes, icon left margin and the opacity of the button glyphs.

• 0x0 = Vanilla style (default)
• 0x1 = Windows Vista style
• 0x2 = Windows 7 style
• 0x3 = Windows 8 style

| | CenterCaption | DWORD | Controls how title bar text is aligned.

• 0x0 = Keeps it on the left (default)
• 0x1 = Regular centering
• 0x2 = Windows 8 style centering

| | TextGlowMode | DWORD | Specifies how window caption glow effect will be rendered

• 0x0 = No glow effect
• 0x1 = Glow effect loaded from atlas (default)
• 0x2 = Glow effect loaded from atlas and theme opacity is respected
• 0x3 = Composited glow effect using your theme settings HIWORD of the value specifies glow size (0 = theme default)

| | CustomThemeAtlas | String | Path to PNG file with theme resource (bitmap must have exactly the same layout as msstyle theme you are using!).

💡 OpenGlass also looks for a .layout file with the same name (e.g., theme.png.layout) to determine the layout of the atlas. | | DisableModernBorders | DWORD | Disable modern rounded window borders.

• 0x0 = Enable modern borders (default)
• 0x1 = Disable modern borders

ℹ️ Only effective in Win11 |

Advanced settings

These settings are intended for HKLM and should only be modified if necessary.

[!CAUTION] Do not modify this section unless you fully understand the impact.

Key Name	Type	Description
DisableGlassOnBattery	DWORD	0x1 = When energy saver is on then the glass effect will be opaque to decrease energy consumption (default) 0x0 = glass effect won't be opaque on energy saver
DisabledHooks	DWORD	Controls which module's hooks are disabled, which will also control the availability of features.

• 0x0 = No hooks are disabled (default)
• 0x1 = Disables hooks for [CaptionTextHandler.cpp](OpenGlass/CaptionTextHandler.cpp)
• 0x2 = Disables hooks for [AccentOverrider.cpp](OpenGlass/AccentOverrider.cpp)
• 0x4 = Disables hooks for [GlassFrameHandler.cpp](OpenGlass/GlassFrameHandler.cpp)
• 0x8 = Disables hooks for [GlassReflectionHandler.cpp](OpenGlass/GlassReflectionHandler.cpp)
• 0x10 = Disables hooks for [CaptionMetricsTweaker.cpp](OpenGlass/CaptionMetricsTweaker.cpp)

⚠️ Should only be used to maintain compatibility with third-party applications. | | GlassSafetyZoneMode | DWORD | Set 0 to disable glass safety zone. (default = 1) |

Credits

Banner for OpenGlass

Provided by @aubymori. Wallpaper: metalheart jawn #2 by @kfh83.

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Development build

Prerequisites

• Visual Studio 2026 with C++ desktop development workload
• vcpkg: main C++ dependencies (wxwidgets, wil, knsoft-slimdetours) are pulled via vcpkg. Auxiliary packages (VC-LTL, SourceLink) come from NuGet.

Building

1. Run vcpkg integrate install so dependencies are picked up automatically by MSBuild.
2. Open OpenGlass.slnx in Visual Studio.
3. Select the Release configuration and press F5.

[!TIP] InnoSetup is not required. You may see errors related to the installer project during build. These do not block compilation and DLLs/executables are still produced.

ReleaseSigned configuration

Official releases use the ReleaseSigned configuration. This configuration uses macros to prevent digital signature from being abused. Do not mix ReleaseSigned binaries with plain Release binaries. Signed and unsigned components are not compatible. If you compile with the plain Release configuration, some features may behave differently when loaded alongside official signed DLLs.

Maintaining offset tables

OpenGlass reads internal dwmcore.dll and uDWM.dll struct members via hardcoded byte offsets that change between Windows builds. When a new build arrives, these offsets must be updated.

Automated update (LLM-driven)

Two 7-phase skills methodically extract all offsets from IDA Pro. Each offset struct in the .Offsets.hpp files has inline comments documenting the