i went into the taskbar settings and put the tranoarenct to 50% expecting it to only effect the bar, but the open apps icons are now simi transparent. the systray is fine in just the open apps icons that were effect.

I looked at the code and that is actually by design so that setting taskbar transparency affects the whole bar. If anything, the issue is the systray icons not automatically assuming the taskbar's transparency as well.

is it by design in winstep or in the theme? BIG DIFFERENCE. as for the systray icons is the transparency missed in winstep, the theme, or is windows simply correcting a oversight in either the theme or winstep and not allowing the systray icons to be made transparent? you want specifics when we want help the least you cam do is the same and give specifics when responding back.

Nothing to do with themes, the transparency sliders are universal.

The systray icons are not rendered semi-transparent because, unlike now where the tray icons are rendered by NextSTART itself and are thus completely independent from the Windows systray, some versions ago the tray was actually the real Windows systray being 'captured' into NextSTART.

As such, you could not make the real Windows systray semi-transparent, therefore having a transparency slider for the systray did not make sense. Now it does, but such a slider/feature has not been implemented yet.

what makes sence is not to allow the open program icons not be made transparent when adding transparency to nextstart. maybe a toggle?