Create a fully transparent WPF window to capture mouse events Create a fully transparent WPF window to capture mouse events wpf wpf

Create a fully transparent WPF window to capture mouse events


As far as I know, no.

When a Control or Window is fully transparent, it can then be clicked through. This is the case if you set your Window.Background="Transparent", or Opacity="0". As far as I know, this is by design in WPF.

When using an opacity of 0.01, you should barely see the window, if at all. This is likely your best bet at achieving the functionality.

Edit: Another solution, which I tried and does work, is to set the background color to an almost-transparent color. I used Background="#01000000", thus giving an alpha value of 1. This makes your window background transparent-looking, but allows you to place controls on it with the window at full opacity.


In Visual Studio 2010:Select your window in your design view.

Set the properties of your window to:

  • AllowsTransparency : check it
  • Background : Transparent
  • WindowStyle : None


Just set Background=Brushes.Transparent instead of Background=null.

You don't need to use opacity at all (ie. just leave it at 100% opacity).