How to get rid of window shadows?

Question

Level 2

218 points

How to get rid of window shadows?

I'm talking about on the screen, NOT SCREENSHOTS. Again, I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT SCREENSHOTS. Sorry for the all caps bit, but searching on the internet for this always seems to end up being about screenshots, even though the OP doesn't mention them.

I don't mind them too much except when I put windows next to each other. You can gently bump one window against another and you get a nice fit. The borders are in contact. That's good. But then the active window casts a shadow on the edge of the inactive one. The very reason I put them together is to see both of them at full brightness from edge to edge!

Again, I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT SCREENSHOTS. Is there a "fix"?

Oh, and has this been "fixed" in Big Sur?

TIA.

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Apr 11, 2021 11:44 AM

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Answer 1

VikingOSX

Level 10

123,144 points

Apr 11, 2021 12:27 PM in response to betaneptune

The shadows on the windows are part of the Big Sur operating system design ethos and cannot be suppressed by the user.

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Answer 2

Calvin_BT

Level 3

664 points

Apr 18, 2021 5:56 PM in response to betaneptune

You may type this in the Terminal mac.

defaults write com.apple.screencapture disable-shadow -bool TRUE ; killall SystemUIServer

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Answer 3

Kurt Lang

Level 9

68,448 points

Apr 11, 2021 1:07 PM in response to betaneptune

There was a free utility which could do that, but stopped working in El Capitan. The only other reference to your question I could find was a Github project:

https://github.com/puffnfresh/toggle-osx-shadows

But this is also quite old, and requires you to use clib or homebrew to install and run it.

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Answer 4

Lexiepex

Level 6

14,108 points

Apr 12, 2021 12:46 AM in response to betaneptune

As said: it is "part of" Big Sur.

When you are in Mojave there is no setting. BUT, you could try following:

Open Safari, set the "Develop" site on in settings, then choose the "Develop" site and see what all you can do with it, choose "experimental features", and try which one you need to activate or deactivate. I have no time to do it for you.

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Answer 5

betaneptune Author

Level 2

218 points

Apr 11, 2021 2:44 PM in response to Kurt Lang

Greetings,

Bummer. I really wish there was a native setting for this, even the

defaults write com.apple...

stuff would be welcome. Maybe I'll try clib or brew.

Tech tip: Highlight some text in a document. Drag it to the Finder, and voila`! You get a file called

<the highlighted text truncated if too long>.txtClipping

and it contains the text you dragged over, untruncated!

Great for adding notes about the files in the current folder!

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Answer 6

betaneptune Author

Level 2

218 points

Apr 18, 2021 1:57 PM in response to VikingOSX

They're fine most of the time, but when you nudge two windows together, you want to clearly see all of both and not have the edge of one shadowed by the other.

Sorry for the goof in round 1. I will tell Apple via their feedback bit.

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Answer 7

betaneptune Author

Level 2

218 points

Apr 18, 2021 7:50 PM in response to Calvin_BT

Calvin_BT wrote:

You may type this in the Terminal mac.

defaults write com.apple.screencapture disable-shadow -bool TRUE ; killall SystemUIServer

I said in my OP that I was talking about windows on the screen, esp. those I nudge together, NOT screencapture.

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Answer 8

betaneptune Author

Level 2

218 points

Apr 12, 2021 12:17 AM in response to betaneptune

Tech tip on the tech tip: Edit the filename so that it starts with a space. This will put the txtClipping file first, before the files, if you sort by name, anyway.

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