10.5: Get rid of the translucent menu bar

Nov 15, '07 02:31:00PM

Contributed by: robg

One down, one to go? Steve Miner somehow managed to figure out how to disable the translucent menu bar. He posted a solution that involved editing a system-level plist, and then commenter Krioni came up with a one-line Terminal command.

Before you try this, realize it (a) requires a restart, and (b) is modifying a system-level variable, and may cause bad things to happen. I tested it on my 10.5 test machine, and it worked as described. However, proceed at your own risk! In Terminal, enter this command:
sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.WindowServer 'EnvironmentVariables' -dict 'CI_NO_BACKGROUND_IMAGE' 1
You'll need to restart your Mac to see the changes, and no, this won't fix the menus. (To reverse this, I imagine you could just repeat it with a 0 at the end, or (for certain) edit the plist file and remove the added key.

I actually found the reworked menubar a bit too bright -- it's literally just a white bar, lacking the subtle 10.4 gradient. That then led me to stumble on Peter Maurer's new Menu Bar Tint, which adds back the gradient (and even lets you go wild with a completely different color scheme, if you wish -- just remember that the stock colors are all full-black, at 0%, 4%, and 10% opacity levels). That's my menu bar above, with Menu Bar Tint running to provide the gradient.

Now if someone just figures out how to make those menus solid again...

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