there has to be some transparency to the graphic in order for the blur to work. Not sure about WB settings but for skin studio usually a mask works well.

NO worry, I wasn't picking on Greg, just stating the obvious !

As for my system it's 7 x64.

It's such a disappointment to notice that stardock lets slip away the only effective customisation suite available for windows as I happened to click in skinstudio on the link "Check the wiki to see if there is more information on this section" to land on a 404 error page..

So WB and skinstudio are out since what, 6 or 8 years and there still no wiki, no information on what does what and how.. I don't see it as a comitment to their work nor it is a skinner's support way of doing things, don't you think ?

Many (or all?) of the wiki's were lost a couple of years ago because of some system event.  Vampothica was kind enough to put together a SkinStudio tutorial here:

https://forums.wincustomize.com/447931/page/1/#3499153

the real problem is that the software is buggy..

But you're right about transparency, available only on some parts of the start menu. I just regret that WB is so limited comparatively to uxpatcher.. You're not even entitled to transparent scrolbars !

No, I don't have uxpatcher installed even I was considering it, I just took a look at it and was researching the available skins.

I know I haven't coded anything in ages, I hacknowledge that today's chip are a bit different than the 68000 motorola and it's predecessors but I do remember the trap function allowing one to bypass the OS so I don't get why we are stuck between a restrictedd software and nothing...

I stated 6 or 8 years, speaking in terms of 'maturity', kinda funny for a software still buggy, I am using it too for more than that but what's funny is that in more than 10 years just no one, even stardock, didn't find the necessity of putting online the obvious documentation this software requires so we are left  with a company not updating it's software as it should (the roll up bug was already there one year ago), not offering the correct skinner support/documentation and staying comfy in a 'windows we know' zone...

Is that so.. ? I couldn't tell as I don't have uxpatcher installed but why in that matter, when I put no background for the scrollbar, I get some color showing, letting windows paint whatever was "underneath" the scrollbar ? When I should have an area the color of the background of the windows, white or whatever it is set..