Unable to Remove Shadows Under Windows

Okay, here's my full story, in all its glorious detail:

This is what I want.


And this is the most that I can achieve from Control Panel.


As you can see, Windows won't let me get rid of "Show shadows under windows" and "Show window contents while dragging." Sure, I can remove the check marks from the boxes, but after a restart, Windows puts them back.

And if you were wondering, I did turn off all unnecessary animations ...

... in Control Panel ...



... and in the Settings app.


My next step was to edit the registry (which I really hate to do.) I made changes to my own user account ...


... and globally (as Administrator)


In these sub-keys, a "1" turns a visual effect on, and a "0" turns it off. A restart is needed after making changes.

Do you think this made any difference at all? Nah.

Okay, one more try:


Here, no visual effects are selected. Not a single one. I restarted my computer and ... what do you think (didn't) happen?

In Control Panel, no boxes are checked, but Windows still enables the five visual effects shown in the second illustration, that is:

Show shadows under windows (don't want that)
Show thumbnails instead of icons
Show translucent selection rectangle
Show window contents while dragging (don't want that)
Smooth edges of screen fonts

They appear to be the visual effects that Windows 10 always enables, no matter what you do.
And keep in mind that this is a clean install of Windows 10.

Is there any way that I can get rid of the two visual effects that I don't want?

Before I start, let me explain that I have four user accounts on my computer: one Administrator account and three User accounts (formerly known as Standard or Limited accounts.) The Administrator account and 2 of the 3 User accounts are local; the third User account is a Microsoft account.

I do all my day-to-day computing from my User account. The other two User accounts on my computer (one local, one MSA) are only for use by guests. Since I have had no guests since my clean install (which happened 6 days ago,) those two User accounts are completely default.

With that in mind I'll answer your questions in reverse order:

3- I have nothing synced with any other device.

2- I've got the Professional edition of Windows 10.

1- No need to create a new account for testing, since I already have three other accounts, two of which have default settings.

In my Administrator account, the Control Panel looks like this:


which is completely different from what I have in my User account. I can add or remove check marks, but they always go back to this after a re-start.

And guess what: Now all my user accounts look that way! Nevertheless, and regardless of what check mark is in what box, only five visual effects are actually enabled - those five that I described near the bottom of my second post - and the same is true for all four of my accounts.

I won't call this a bug - only Microsoft can make that determination. It may be simply an interface aberration, since I saw this after one of my restarts:


But in any case, nothing I have described thus far is a huge problem. I'm perfectly content to use my computer as it is. I would only like to know if there is another way to have it look the way I wish it would look.

Thanks for that information. I'm actually familiar with those links, having read them earlier.

What's good to know is that there is nothing 'wrong' with my computer. It's just something that affects certain configurations. Since this is a really minor issue, I'm not going to worry about it.

My problem is SOLVED ... thanks to our good friend Brink and Windows Ten Forums.

Going through my notes from long ago, I came across a long-forgotten procedure which Shawn explained here: Change Visual Effects Settings in Windows 10. I had to use Option Two, which directly edits the Windows registry ... so be very careful if you do this yourself.

I can tell you two things:

1- The method described works for me: I have no more shadows under windows.
2- There is something not right going on with the Visual Effects controls in Control Panel - in my configuration, at least. The visual effects that I see or don't see do not correspond to the check marks in the boxes. It may be something particular to my own configuration, or it may be something in Windows 10.

Thanks to everyone for sticking with me. I appreciate your help.

Bulldog said:

2- There is something not right going on with the Visual Effects controls in Control Panel - in my configuration, at least. The visual effects that I see or don't see do not correspond to the check marks in the boxes. It may be something particular to my own configuration, or it may be something in Windows 10.

I have read that before, that when you edit these settings via the registry, the checkboxes in the GUI do not update correctly.

Anyway, here's something I noticed inside my VM

How do you get to this Visual Effects dialog? Here's what I need to do:

1. Control Panel (or WIN+X menu)
2. System
3. link for Advanced System Settings
4. Advanced tab
5. Visual Effects Settings button

HOWEVER, in step 3, I get prompted for an administrator password. Which leads me to believe that any checkboxes I end up clicking get modified for the administrator account, NOT my standard account that I'm logged in as.

Instead, use WIN+R to open up the Run dialog, and type in "SystemPropertiesPerformance". Now you get the Visual Effects interface for your normal user account. And changing these settings DID work for me, and persist after a reboot.