micaforeveryone / micaforeveryone

Mica For Everyone is a tool to enable backdrop effects on the title bars of Win32 apps on Windows 11.

Mica For Everyone!

Mica For Everyone is a tool to customize system backdrop on Win32 apps using DwmSetWindowAttribute and other methods. It can apply Mica (or any other backdrop materials) on the non-client area (window frame) or background of supported apps and its behavior is customizable through a GUI and a config file.

Note Mica For Everyone is not responsible for rendering the effects you set, it just asks Windows to do that for you. If there's any problem with the effects it's a third-party issue. Try creating a rule for the affected apps and try different settings before opening an issue for it.

🕹 How do I get it?

Go to Releases page > Assets > and choose the appropriate download or just click here to download the latest version of Mica For Everyone.

🛠 Config File

For more information check our wiki page and default config file.

🖥 Screenshots

🌍 Localization

Translations into versions for other languages are welcome! Please read the translation guide before starting translations.

Key	Name	Translator
az-Latn	Azerbaijian (Latin)	thepoladov13
cs	Czech	maggster165
de	German	uDEV2019
es	Spanish	Amaro Martínez
el	Greek	Lefteris T.
fr	French	SaiyajinK
hu	Hungarian	Zan1456
id	Indonesian	seanardhana, GID0317
it	Italian	alessandrocaseti, A-Loot
ja	Japanese	maboroshin
ko	Korean	RTFTR
nl	Dutch	toineenzo
pl	Polish	Piteriuz
pt-br	Brazilian Portuguese	Douglas Vianna
ro	Romanian	dabardibid
ru	Russian	Danik2343, krlvm
sr	Serbian	bzzrak
tr	Turkish	Meriç Bağlayan
uk-ua	Ukrainian	Phyan, lowl1f3
vi	Vietnamese	chefkozaki
zh-Hans	Chinese (Simplified)	AndromedaMelody, FrzMtrsprt, ritxsen
zh-Hant	Chinese (Traditional)	MW1Z, jay900604

🖊️ Contributing

If you're interested in contributing or translating Mica For Everyone, check our CONTRIBUTING.md file.

☑️ Frequency Asked Questions

Check wiki page or issues.

micaforeveryone's Issues

Trying to open settings gives error and crashes MFE?

Pressing F11 in Explorer resets its material to default

Config File Generator doesn't save changes to mspaint and explorer

Continue from #51

I think this happens when you close a section without adding properties to it, like this:

Process: "explorer" { }

To run this application, you must install .NET Core. Always show startup

Why startup always show this message? I already install this

Add an option to hide taskbar icon

Not much of an issue though, but I wonder if there is a setting to hide taskbar icon?
If not, please add the ability to hide it.
As for me, ones it configured, it is not necessary for frequent access.
And if necessary, you can always create a shortcut on the desktop.
TIA

Cannot add rule via the Settings app

In the MFE Settings app, clicking on Add Rule provides the two expected options, but the app crashes when you click on either of them. See attached image.

Windows lagging

All of my windows lag when I move them and its extremely disorienting, it starts when i start the app and doesn't stop until i reboot my machine.

[MSIX] Unable to be installed on w11 22610 due to it being signed with an untrusted certificate.

When Installing Windows will refuse to install the app (And I've not managed to find a way around it)
This app package is not signed with a trusted certificate. Contact your system administrator or the app developer to obtain a new certificate or app package with trusted certificates. The root certificate and all immediate certificates of the signature in the app package must be trusted (0x800B010A)

Crash after sleep

Hi,
After resume, MicaFE crash.
I did not clearly identify if it is to the resume or to the connection of an external monitor, these two elements were together when I had this error anyway.

is it only UWP apps that support the mica titlebar?

The window to which MicaForEveryone is applied is not displayed properly

As the title says, the display of the window to which MicaForEveryone is applied is disturbed.
Quitting MicaForEveryone does not disable it, and restarting Windows does not change the display.
Please tell me how to undo this problem.

Acrylic/Blur-esque effect on Chrome pre-22523.

This isn't so much reporting a bug that I want fixed, rather I'm reporting a bug which actually provides a feature I enjoy, and I'm wondering if there's any way to implement it as a more permanent option.

There is a way to apply an Acrylic/Blur like effect to Chrome's title bar on the latest release build of Windows 11 (21H2, 22000.593), when it would otherwise only be available on Insider Builds 22523 and later.
Unfortunately when the steps below to reproduce the bug are taken, it only applies to any currently open Chrome windows, any window opened after performing these steps will require you to re-do the steps to apply the blur.

1. Make a process rule for chrome
2. Set your Titlebar Color to "Light"
3. Set your Extend Frame Into Client Area to "Off"
4. Set your Blur Behind to "On"
5. Set your Backdrop Type to "None", then after selecting None, change your Backdrop Type to Mica.
6. All currently open Chrome windows should have the below look applied, which IMO is much nicer than Mica and I would appreciate a way of more consistently/permanently applying this effect if possible!

In case it matters, I'm running Windows 11 Enterprise (21H2, 22000.593), and MFE 1.0.6.1.
My Global Rules are Titlebar Color = System, Backdrop Type = Mica, Extend Frame = Off, Blur Behind = Off.
I'd greatly appreciate any consideration you could give to making this a permanent option (if feasible), thanks!

Below is an image of the effect.

Does not work with new Windows 11 beta SDK

This is less of a real issue and more informational in case it hasn't been tried before. I wouldn't expect your project to actually function with the beta SDK unless it was specifically designed to do so.

Just for fun, I removed the Windows 11 SDK (10.0.22000.0) and installed the Windows 11 beta (10.0.22543.0) SDK my PC running Windows 11 Insider (dev channel, build 10.0.22543.0). I attempted to build (after I updated the MicaForEveryone.UI project to point to the newer SDK) which resulted in the following errors:

Error: 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\\Platforms\UAP\10.0.22543.0\PreviousPlatforms.xml' does not contain an entry for platform version '10.0.22000.0'. Is your Target Platform Min Version a suported SDK? MicaForEveryone.UI\App.xaml		
Error: 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\\Platforms\UAP\10.0.22543.0\PreviousPlatforms.xml' does not contain an entry for platform version '10.0.22000.0'. Is your Target Platform Min Version a suported SDK?	MicaForEveryone.UI\ContentDialogView.xaml		
Error: 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\\Platforms\UAP\10.0.22543.0\PreviousPlatforms.xml' does not contain an entry for platform version '10.0.22000.0'. Is your Target Platform Min Version a suported SDK?	MicaForEveryone.UI\SettingsView.xaml		
Error: 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\\Platforms\UAP\10.0.22543.0\PreviousPlatforms.xml' does not contain an entry for platform version '10.0.22000.0'. Is your Target Platform Min Version a suported SDK?	MicaForEveryone.UI\TrayIconView.xaml		
Warning: The referenced component '....nuget\packages\microsoft.toolkit.win32.ui.xamlapplication\6.1.3\build\..\lib\uap10.0\Microsoft.Toolkit.Win32.UI.XamlHost.winmd' could not be found.	MicaForEveryone.UI

Windows 11 HDR mode. Not showing text ?

Can you add more effects like Acrylic?

Maybe with acrylic it would look more like what Windows 7 had

how do i uninstall it?

I can't uninstall it, I deleted all the files but everything stayed half bugged.

Saving a rule bounces back to General tab

Saving any rule in the MFE Settings app causes the focus to return to the General tab. It should instead stay focused on the currently visible tab (and just disable the Save button).

Could Firefox somehow be added to have Mica effect?

https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/q95cw5/firefox_with_mica_material_a_proof_of_concept/

Dark theme for menu bar

Is it really possible to make a dark theme for this header? Sometimes it doesn't look very good, especially in applications from Adobe (After Effects and Premiere Pro)

[Suggestion] Is Windows 10 support possible?

I know, obviously all the effects aren't gonna be there but is at least the black titlebar possible?

Firefox doesn't respect "System" title bar color

Hi,
I'm using Auto Dark Mode to automatically switch dark/light theme at a specific time, but MFE seems not changing automatically to light/dark mode when it changes automatically (I've set the color to System). This should be added to MFE.
Thanks

win11 Taskbar why right click takbar system tray icon, this app popped up a error window, then crash

Why right click win11 taskbar system tray icon, this app popped up a error window, then crash

when I change Windows 10 Taskbar style, then right click system tray icon, right click context menu is working

Will MFE be also published to the Microsoft Store?

Any plans for this? 😁

Nothing happens upon opening MicaForEveryone.exe

Attempting to run release v0.0.4.1 by double clicking either MicaForEveryone.exe or MicaForEveryone.UI.exe does not seem to do anything. No app appears, not in the taskbar and not in the system tray. Double clicking MicaForEveryone.exe makes it appear in task manager for a short moment, before automatically closing. Only the first time it prompted to install Windows Desktop Runtime.

Running an old version (v2) seems to work fine, but obviously misses a lot of features added in the newer releases. May be related to issue #5.

The virtual machine is running Windows 11 Insider Dev Build 22557.1.

Accent Color Tint with Mica/Acrylic/Tabbed

When the backdrop type is set to "None", and "Show accent color on title bars and window borders" is set in the Windows settings, the titlebar and backdrop will be tinted to the accent color:

I would really appreciate it if there were to be a way to tint Mica/Acrylic/Tabbed backdrops too; right now when the accent color is set to show, it causes the main titlebar to simply not have a backdrop at all, and the extended frame to not have any tint:

Ideally, in this scenario, the entire titlebar/menubar should be tinted blue, on top of the selected backdrop (so translucent blue in the case of acrylic), somewhat mimicking the Win7 aero look when the color is customized.

Remove black Text-Background of titlebar-text?

Is there a way to get rid of the black Background of the titlebar text?

App Fails to run

Attempting to open the MicaForEveryone.exe file does nothing lol. I am running Windows 11 Build 22543.1000 and it just breaks even after installing the .net crap, restarting and running as admin. PLEASE FIX

PowerToys mica titlebar doesn't work anymore?

I used to have mica titlebar on powertoys but now it wont apply itself

Run at Startup

I put a shortcut of the application in the startup folder. The app gives an error when the shortcut is used. Is there a way to have the app run at startup without putting the whole app in the folder?

Multiple monitor fullscreen leaves a bar on the secondary monitor

idk if this makes any sense but when a window is full screen on one monitor, it shows a bar on the second monitor and vice versa


https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/42164502/150526490-15dc9683-60c7-4a3e-ae18-e5e9e6c474aa.mov

How to add more than 1 app to config file

it seems like it's not possible to add more than one app to the config.ini, it keeps throwing up errors whenever I try to add more than one process name

ContentDialog crashes on Light Mode

Trying to create a new rule in the Settings window causes the program to crash completely in 0.1.0.0 Alpha 3 (MSIX, clean install).

Extend Frame Into Client Area setting not saving

In the MFE Settings app, checking or unchecking the Extend Frame Into Client Area setting and clicking the Save button causes the focus to return to the General area, but then clicking on the desired rule shows that the checkbox state was not saved (and the config file is not updated).

When the config file is manually edited to change the True/False value of ExtendFrameToClientArea, and the file is saved, the Settings app properly reflects the state and, when reloading MFE, the change is applied (if the target app supports it, of course).

Add option to run on startup as administrator

Some apps, for example cmd isn´t affected by mica for everyone unless it´s launched as administrator.

The problem is that mica for everyone is started on startup as normal app, but not as an app opened by administrator.

It would be much easier to have this option.

Split "Blur Backdrop" from "Blur Behind"

Windows OS have 5 types of backdrop:

• Aero Glass (used in Vista/Win7)
• Blur (first appeared in Win10 Build10074, designed for StartMenu and TaskBar , make them look beautiful in early version of Win10)
• Acrylic (gradually replace Blur after Win10 1709)
• Mica
• Tabbed

DwmEnableBlurBehindWindow is a API which is first introduced in Vista. It is designed for Aero Glass and make developers use Aero Glass in their application easily. So it has no connection with Blur Backdrop.

Blur Backdrop usually use SetWindowCompositionAttribute to enable and it is prove that Start Menu uses it.

I think it is necessary to split "Blur Backdrop" from "Blur Behind" Feature, and move "Blur Backdrop" into "Backdrop Type ComboBox.

Also, SetWindowCompositionAttribute can enable Acrylic before 22523, so I think it is better to make Win10 and Win11(Build22000) to select this type of backdrop.

Thank you.

How to improve window dragging performance?

I am experiencing quite a lot of lag when I drag windows around. Is there any way to fix this lag?

When will this be released in Microsoft Store?

[Suggestion] Open config file location button

where is the config file located?

found it, %localappdata%

minimize,maximize,close icons are now black? losing focus and going back to the app returns the white icons

v0.0.4.1 doesn't have this issue

Version 0.0.3 won't launch

Windows version info:
Edition Windows 11 Home
Version 21H2
Installed on ‎Oct ‎2, ‎2021
OS build 22000.376
Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.22000.376.0

When I double click MicaForEveryone.exe in the folder extracted from the .zip, nothing happens. 0.0.2 works and Reliability Monitor shows nothing. Running as admin also did not work.

[basic question] How to install?

I downloaded and extracted the zip folder, ran the EXE file and it works fine. But how do I correctly install it? Do I literally just copy the file over to a new folder under Program Files? Should I keep all the other DDL, JSON, PRI files that are in the zip folder alongside?

Light mode is broken (White text)

When using the light theme, most text is also white. Is this a known issue? Is it fixable?
See: https://imgur.com/a/7h18Cvi

Mica effect being applied to ShareX screenrecordings?

when I start screen recording it applies the mica effect to the region

Support Windows 10.

Currently the following things don't work on 10:

• The Settings window.
• In the Settings window, add rule pop-up crashes the app.

For the GUI maybe make a check here so that this doesn't execute on Windows 10.
https://github.com/MicaForEveryone/MicaForEveryone/blob/master/MicaForEveryone.UI/Brushes/XamlMicaBrush.cs#L73

for the context menu going below the taskbar: put it in the overflow menu and it will work fine.

Newly opened windows do not inherit style change

When opening a new window of an app specified to be "enhanced" with MFE, it does not automatically acquire the updated style (an Acrylic title bar background, for example); it retains the Windows default style.

Restarting MFE or just reloading the config file does update the style on any already-open windows.

App fails to run (10.0.22543)

App doesn't launch with the error about missing .NET Core, however both the SDK, Core and NETDesktop runtimes are installed.

Font turned white on white windows

Program: Internet Download Manager
Issue: Font turned white on white windows
I have tried to set everything to Default, end and delete the application, but it has no effect.

option to control amount of blur on acrylic

Not a fan of Mica bcoz the blur intensity is not to my liking but the acrylic in this looks more like aero blur. Want something in between..that looks like the Acrylic blur on Macos finder 🙂

Mica (and other) does not work

Windows 11 build 22523. Interface language: Russian (I don't know how in other languages)