Translucent Selection Rectangle: Turn It On/Off, and Troubleshoot

If you wish to enable, disable, or troubleshoot the translucent selection rectangle on Windows, read this in-depth guide until the end.

Windows OS uses the translucent selection rectangle feature to show you the items or areas you’ve selected on the PC screen. It’s a semi-transparent and blue-tinted overlay indicating the boundaries of the selected content.

Luckily, Windows allows you to customize this feature to suit your usage. I’ll show you how to activate and deactivate it and troubleshoot it if it’s not working.

How To Enable the Translucent Selection Rectangle in Windows

This feature is activated by default in all Windows 10 and 11 PCs. However, if it’s for some reason disabled, here’s how to turn it on:

Using Performance Options

1. Press the Windows + I keys together to open the Windows Settings app.
2. Navigate to the System menu from the Home menu on the left side navigation panel.
3. Now, on the right side, below the System menu, scroll down to the bottom and click on the About button.

4. On the About menu, click on the Advanced system settings hyperlink. You should find that in the Related links section, below Device specifications.

5. You should now see the System Properties dialog box.
6. Go to the Advanced tab and click on the Settings button for the Performance section.

7. Checkmark the box for the Show translucent selection rectangle feature.
8. Hit the Apply button and click OK.

9. You’ll also need to click Apply and OK on the System Properties dialog.
10. The feature should start working instantly.
11. If it doesn’t work, restart the PC.

Using the Registry Editor

If you’re a power user and don’t mind going through Registry editing, you can follow these steps:

1. Press the Windows + R keys to get the Run command dialog box.
2. Type in the regedit command in the Open field and hit Enter.

3. You should see the Registry Editor tool.
4. Copy and paste the following Registry key address in the address bar on the top:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

5. Hit Enter to access the Registry key directory.
6. Now, find the ListviewAlphaSelect Registry key on the right side.
7. Select it and right-click to get the Modify context menu. Click on Modify.

8. The Edit DWORD (32-bit) Value dialog box will show up.
9. There, enter 1 into the Value data field and click OK to save this modification.

10. Now, close the Registry Editor tool.
11. Restart the PC.

You’ll see the translucent selection rectangle when selecting directories or text on your PC after the reboot.

Using the Windows 11 Terminal

1. Right-click on the Start menu button to access the Power User menu.
2. Click on the Terminal (Admin) option.

3. The Windows PowerShell app will open with administrator rights.
4. Copy and paste the following script inside the terminal and hit Enter:

Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced" -Name "ListviewAlphaSelect" -Value 1

5. Now, you need to restart the Windows File Explorer tool.
6. To do so, execute this script in the terminal app:

Stop-Process -Name explorer -Force
Start-Process explorer

7. You might see a warning dialog box as shown below. Click Paste anyway to continue.

8. You should now see the semi-transparent selection rectangle when selecting items.

How To Disable Translucent Selection Rectangle in Windows

You can simply reverse the steps performed in the Performance Options dialog box. If that doesn’t work for you, try any of these methods:

Using the System Properties Shortcut

1. Press the Windows + R keys to launch the Run command.
2. Type in the following command into the Open field and hit Enter:

SystemPropertiesPerformance.exe

3. You’ll instantly see the Performance Options dialog box.
4. There, uncheck the box for Show translucent selection rectangle.
5. Click Apply and OK.

6. Restart the PC to apply the changes.

Using the Windows 11 Terminal

Follow all the steps mentioned previously in the PowerShell-based method. Just replace the previous script with the following to deactivate the feature:

Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced" -Name "ListviewAlphaSelect" -Value 0

The script for rebooting the File Explore will remain the same as outlined above.

How To Fix Translucent Selection Rectangle in Windows

If this feature works intermittently or doesn’t work at all, try these troubleshooting ideas in the order they appear. I organized the methods based on complexity.

Perform Basic Troubleshooting

• Disconnect and reconnect the mouse: Your mouse could be faulty, so you should try reconnecting it. If that doesn’t work, try a different one that you know it works.
• Refresh the PC: Press the F5 button a couple of times to refresh the CPU.
• Restart: It’s likely that your PC got stuck due to heavy processing needs and needs resetting.
• Update Windows: Press Windows + I to bring up the Settings app, choose Windows Update, and select Resume updates, or Check for updates.

• Disable and re-enable the feature: Follow the steps mentioned earlier to deactivate the feature. Then, reactivate and restart the device and test again.

Use the Default Windows 11 Theme

Did you customize the Windows 11 theme to increase device performance? If so, undo those changes.

Here are the default settings:

1. Press Windows + I to bring up the Settings app.
2. Go to the Personalization menu by clicking on it in the left-side navigation panel.
3. Scroll down on the right to find the Themes menu. Click on that.

4. Below the Current theme section, you should see a few built-in themes.
5. Select the first one named Windows (Light.

6. Now, go back to the main menu of Personalization.
7. Click on the Colors button and enable the Transparency effects if not activated already.

Reboot Windows Explorer

1. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to bring up the Task Manager.
2. Type Explorer in the top search bar.
3. Right-click on the Windows Explorer process icon and choose Restart from the context menu.
4. The PC screen might blink once.

Restart the GPU

The translucent selection rectangle is a graphics processing-dependent feature. If the GPU isn’t working appropriately, it also won’t work.

To fix this, close all open apps on your Windows PC. Now, press the Ctrl + Shift + Windows + B keys altogether.

You might hear a beep sound and the screen might go dark once or twice. However, in most PCs, you won’t see any changes.

Now, test if the selection rectangle is working or not.

Summary

So far, you learned how to enable or disable the translucent selection rectangle feature in a Windows 11 PC. If you have a Windows 10 PC, you can still use the same steps.

You’ve also seen how to troubleshoot this Windows Aero feature if it isn’t working.

If you face screen problems in Windows 10 or experience a pixelated screen after an update, we can help you out!