Support

Product: Window Opacity Keys (Stream Deck plugin for Windows) · Provider: GRAMSHIFT (Tokyo, Japan)

Contact

Email contact@gramshift.com in English or Japanese. Requests for features and bug reports are welcome, and every message is read; we do not promise a reply time. Please include your Windows version (Settings > System > About), your Stream Deck app version, the name of the program whose window you wanted to change, whether it runs as administrator, and a photo or screenshot of the key and of its settings (the Status line says what the plugin sees).

If a window stays see-through, or you can not click it any more

Click-through window: press the same Click-Through key again. It shows the name of the window it made click-through and puts that window back whatever is in front. You do not need to click the window.
Any changed window: press a Restore Windows key. It puts back the windows the plugin changed and shows how many there are. A window it can not put back (its program does not answer) stays in the count; press again later.
If you removed the Click-Through key while a window is click-through: bring that window to the front (Alt+Tab) and press any Front Window Opacity or Click-Through key of this plugin, or press Restore Windows, or quit Stream Deck. Each of these puts the window back.
No such key on your Stream Deck: quit the Stream Deck app (right-click its icon in the notification area, then Quit). When the app closes its connection, the plugin puts the changed windows back before it ends (it can not put back a window whose program does not answer at that moment).
If the plugin was ended by force (Task Manager, a crash) while windows were changed, they stay as they are. Start the Stream Deck app again and press a Restore Windows key: the list of changed windows is kept by the Stream Deck app, and the key counts the ones that are still open.
The plugin changes nothing permanent on your PC: no Windows setting, no file of the program. Only the open window is changed.

Get started

Install the plugin from the Elgato Marketplace. In the Stream Deck app, find Window Opacity Keys in the action list and drag an action onto a key. Put a Restore Windows key next to it.
Click the window you want to see through, so that it is in front. The key shows its name and 100%.
Press the key: the window goes to 80 %, then 60 %, then 40 %, and the next press puts it back as it was.

The plugin does not keep a window on top of others. If you want chat or a video to stay above your game, use the "always on top" option of that program (or of another tool) together with this plugin. While the Stream Deck app itself is in front, the keys show --: the plugin never changes the Stream Deck app's own window.

The actions

Front Window Opacity: each press makes the window in front more see-through, one step at a time. Steps (%): whole numbers with commas, for example 80, 60, 40 (the default) or 90, 75, 50, 25. After the last step, a press puts the window back as it was. A number below 20 counts as 20.
Click-Through: makes the window in front see-through at the Opacity you set (default 60 %) and lets mouse clicks pass through it to whatever is underneath. The key then shows the name of that window and CLICK-THRU, also when another window is in front. Press the same key again to put the window back. Each Click-Through key holds one window; use two keys for two windows.
App Opacity: choose an App from the list (the programs that have a window open now, by their .exe name) and an Opacity (default 70 %). A press makes the visible windows of that app see-through; the next press puts them back as they were. Windows that are minimized, hidden or on another virtual desktop at that moment are skipped, and so are small tool windows.
Restore Windows: puts back the windows the plugin changed. The key shows how many windows are changed now; a window that can not be put back (its program does not answer) stays in the count.

How it works, and what that means

The plugin asks Windows to compose the window with an opacity ("layered window" with an alpha value), and for Click-Through also to let the mouse pass through it. Before the first change it reads and keeps what the window was like: its two style bits for this, and its own opacity and colour key if the program had set any. Then it reads the window again, and the key shows the percent Windows reports, not the percent that was asked for.

Putting back means the state before the first change. A window that its own program had already made 70 % see-through goes back to 70 %, not to 100 %. A window that let clicks through by its own program still does afterwards.
Not supported: some windows are drawn by their program in a way (called UpdateLayeredWindow) that breaks when an opacity is set from outside. For such a window the key shows -- "not supported", a press says NOT SUPPORTED, and the window is not touched. We do not know in advance which programs do this.
A program that runs as administrator. Windows has a protection that is meant to keep a normal program from changing the window of a program that runs with higher rights. We expect the key to say DENIED for such a window, with the window left as it was. We have not tested this case.
The opacity never goes below 20 %, so that a window can not become invisible.
If the program changes its window again (its own opacity setting, for example), the key says CHANGED, and the next press puts the window back as it was before the plugin touched it.
The keyboard. Windows documents the click-through setting as one for the mouse only. We have not measured what happens to keyboard input for a click-through window.
Anti-cheat software. We make no statement about how any anti-cheat software treats a program that changes the style of a game's window from outside. The plugin does not read or modify the memory or files of any program, injects nothing and sets no hook. If you are unsure, do not use it on the game's own window; using it on a chat or notes window does not touch the game's window.
Never changed: the desktop, the taskbar and the other surfaces of Windows itself, the Stream Deck app, a minimized or hidden window, and a window whose program does not answer (the key says NO ANSWER).

When the plugin or the Stream Deck app ends

Event	What happens
The Stream Deck app closes its connection to the plugin (it quits, or restarts the plugin)	The plugin puts the changed windows back, then ends. A window whose program does not answer at that moment can not be put back; it stays in the list for Restore Windows after the next start. In our test runs three changed windows were back as before and the plugin process had ended less than a tenth of a second after the connection closed. (Tested by closing the connection from a test host, not by quitting the Stream Deck app itself.)
The plugin process is ended by force (Task Manager, a crash)	Nothing runs any more that could put the windows back: they stay see-through or click-through. The list of changed windows is kept by the Stream Deck app. When the plugin starts again, it takes that list over; a Restore Windows key then counts the windows that are still open and puts them back, and a Click-Through key shows its window again. (Tested by killing the plugin process and starting it again under a test host.)
You switch to another Stream Deck page or profile	Nothing: changed windows stay as they are. Put a Restore Windows key where you can reach it.
A changed window is closed	It leaves the count after about a second. If Windows gives its handle number to another window later, the plugin notices (another process, thread, window class or start time of the process) and does not touch that window.

What we tested, and what we did not

Tested on one PC (Windows 11, one 1920 x 1080 screen at 100 % scaling), with the plugin as shipped running on the Node.js of Stream Deck 7.6, on six test windows of a test program of our own, read by a separate process: Front Window Opacity (80, 60, 40 % and back, every value identical to before), Click-Through (the system no longer found the window under the mouse position; identical to before after the second press), a window that was 70 % see-through by its own program (back to 70 %), a window with a colour key (the colour key was kept; back to its own setting), a window drawn with UpdateLayeredWindow (not touched, its drawing kept working), App Opacity for the test program (four windows changed, the tool window and the unsupported window not), the connection closing, and a kill followed by a restart and Restore Windows. Before, during and after, the same values of every visible window of other programs on that PC (17 at the time) were read and were identical.

Separately, with the same Windows calls outside the plugin: a red test window at 50 % over a blue one gave the mixed colour on screen, a real mouse click went to the window underneath while the window was click-through, and a Chromium browser window that the test started itself became see-through and came back the same way.

Not tested: any particular game or app other than the above; exclusive full-screen games; a program running as administrator; apps from the Microsoft Store; more than one screen; scaling other than 100 %; HDR, protected video and screen capture of a see-through window; whether a see-through window changes the speed of a game; anti-cheat software; quitting the real Stream Deck app while a window is changed; Windows 10; ARM PCs.

What the keys show

Key	Meaning
Dark, window name, `100%` "not changed"	The window in front has not been changed by the plugin. A lower percent with "the app's own" means the program itself made it see-through.
Green, window name, `80%` "see-through"	Read back from Windows: the window in front is at that opacity by the plugin.
Green, window name, `CLICK-THRU` "press to undo"	On a Click-Through key: that window lets mouse clicks through, as read back from Windows. It stays on the key while other windows are in front.
Dark, window name, `NORMAL`	On a Click-Through key: the window in front takes mouse clicks normally. On an App Opacity key: the app's windows are not changed (and how many a press would change).
Amber frame, `CHANGED` "press to restore"	The plugin changed this window, and the program or Windows changed it again since. A press puts back what it had before the plugin touched it.
Gray, `--` "no window in front"	Nothing a press would change is in front (the desktop, the taskbar, the Stream Deck app).
Gray, window name, `--` "not supported"; after a press amber `NOT SUPPORTED`	The window is drawn in a way that an opacity from outside would break. It is left untouched.
Amber frame, `DENIED` "Windows refused"	Windows did not let the plugin change the window; nothing was changed.
Amber frame, `FAILED` "put back as it was"	The window did not keep the new setting; it was put back as it was.
Amber frame, `NO WINDOW`, `MINIMIZED`, `NO ANSWER`, `ALREADY`, `BAD LEVELS`, `PARTLY`	Why the press did nothing or not everything: no window to change, the window is minimized, its program does not answer, the window is already below every step, the steps in the settings can not be used, or some windows of the app were not changed.
Restore Windows: a number	How many windows are changed by the plugin now (green when more than 0). After a press: `DONE`, or `FAILED` with the number that could not be put back (they stay in the count; press again later).
Amber frame, `--` "reinstall plugin"	The plugin could not load its Windows part. Remove the plugin in the Stream Deck app and install it again from the Elgato Marketplace.

Questions

The window is see-through but goes behind my game when I click the game.
The plugin changes the opacity only. Turn on "always on top" in that program if it has it.

The key shows the name of another window than the one I want.
Front Window Opacity and Click-Through act on the window that is in front at that moment. Click the window first, then press the key.

My app is not in the App list.
The list shows programs that have a window open at that moment. Start the app, then press the refresh button next to the list.

Can it change the opacity with a dial?
Not in this version: the actions are for keys.

Does it work on Mac?
No. This plugin is for Windows 10 and 11 only.

Privacy

To show the name of the window in front and to list apps, the plugin reads window titles and program file names on your PC. Nothing is sent to us or to any online service. See the Privacy Policy for exactly what is read and what is kept.