How to Disable Aero Glass Transparency in Mozilla Thunderbird Window?
If you are an older user of Mozilla Thunderbird email Desktop client, you might have noticed the addition of Aero Glass interface since 5.0 version of Thunderbird. Thunderbird 5.0 and later versions utilize Aero Glass feature of Windows Vista and 7 and provide transparency behind menubar and toolbar as shown in following screenshot:
At first look, it looks great but people who use dark Desktop backgrounds face problems while reading the text in Thunderbird window and it becomes quite annoying for them.
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If you don’t like Aero Glass in Thunderbird, you can disable it using this tutorial. We are going to share 2 methods to remove Aero Glass from Mozilla Thunderbird menubar and toolbar:
- Using Compatibility Mode trick
- Using 3rd party Add-on
METHOD 1: Using Compatibility Mode Trick
1. Right-click on Thunderbird shortcut on Desktop or Programs menu and select Properties.
2. Now go to “Compatibility” tab and enable the option “Run this program in compatibility mode for Windows XP (Service Pack 3)“.
3. Click on Apply button and launch Thunderbird. Now you’ll completely get rid of Aero Glass as shown in following screenshot:
METHOD 2: Using 3rd Party Add-on
If you are not in mood to use compatibility mode trick, you can take help of a 3rd party add-on “NoGlass” which can remove Aero Glass in Thunderbird. It also allows you to have colorized icons in “Use Small Icons” mode.
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You can download it using following link:
Download NoGlass Add-on for Mozilla Thunderbird
Once you download, open Thunderbird and click on “Tools -> Add-ons“. Now select “Install Add-on From File” option from the menu showing near add-on searchbox. Select the add-on file which you downloaded and click on Open button. It’ll install the add-on.
Restart Thunderbird and you’ll not get Aero Glass any more as shown in following screenshot:
Thanks to our reader “MJPollard” for sharing this add-on…
Also check:
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Hi, It looks like your article was written back in 2011. It’s currently 2021 and, you guessed it, this problem with aero glass transparency in Thunderbird still persists. The current version of Thunderbird is 78.1.1.0. My version of Windows 7 Ultimate has compatibility options for: Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, Windows Vista Service Pack 1, Windows Vista Service Pack 2, and Windows 7. Unfortunately, none of these settings resolve the aero glass transparency issue in Thunderbird. Likewise, the NoGlass add-on does not work with current versions of Thunderbird. Could you please update this article? Hopefully there is some solution. Thanks.