Windows 11 24H2: Desktop folder icons visible behind Start Menu

[mustafatoktas]

Hello everyone,

After upgrading to Windows 11 24H2, I noticed an issue that wasn’t present in the 23H2 version. When using ExplorerPatcher to get the classic Windows 10-style Start Menu, my desktop folder icons are now visible behind the Start Menu, as shown in the screenshot below.

This behavior did not exist in 23H2, and it seems to be related to how transparency or blur is handled in the new version. I suspect this is due to some internal change in the way Windows now renders the Start Menu surface in 24H2.

I don’t want to disable transparency effects system-wide just to fix this.
Is there a possible workaround or a fix that allows hiding the desktop icons behind the Start Menu without disabling transparency?

Thanks in advance!

Ep: 22621.4317.67.1
My system: win 11 home 24H2 26100.3775

[pyrates999]

from here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/1123918/how-to-make-start-menu-transparent-in-win11

from what I can tell that they are discussing, in the registry: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Personalize

to disable transparency, set the value of EnableBlurBehind to 0

I don't know what kind of registry key this is, so you're gonna have to guess.

It does say this only works on windows 10, so perhaps this will only effect the windows 10 start menu and nothing else?

restart explorer.exe after you do this.

[mustafatoktas]

Thanks for your answer and willingness to help.
Unfortunately, this did not work.

I saved the EnableBlurBehind value as 0 and restarted my computer, but nothing changed.

[pyrates999]

I also see you created an issue here, so I'll link this to it: #4276