The Windows 11 notification center styling guide

This document is a work in progress, contributions are welcome.
See also: The Windows 11 taskbar styling guide, The Windows 11 start menu styling guide.

Table of contents

• Introduction
• Themes
• Style examples
• Transforms
  • Translate
  • Rotate
  • Scale
  • Skew
  • Other properties and attributes
• Colors
  • Solid color
  • Accent colors
  • Clear transparent background
  • Acrylic effect as color
  • Mica effect as color
  • Gradient as color
  • Image as color
  • Reveal as color
• Work in progress

Introduction

This is a collection of commonly requested notification center styling customizations for Windows 11. It is intended to be used with the Windows 11 Notification Center Styler Windhawk mod.

If you're not familiar with Windhawk, here are the steps for installing the mod:

• Download Windhawk from windhawk.net and install it.
• Go to "Mods" in the upper right menu.
• Find and install the "Windows 11 Notification Center Styler" mod.

After installing the mod, open its Settings tab and adjust the styles according to your preferences.

Some customizations are best to be adjusted with other Windhawk mods. Links to those mods are provided where applicable.

Missing customizations

If you're looking for a customization that is not listed here, please open an issue.

Contributing

If you have a notification center styling customization or theme that you would like to share, please submit a pull request.

Themes

Themes are collections of styles that can be imported into the Windows 11 Notification Center Styler mod. The following themes are available:

Link	Screenshot
TranslucentShell
Unified
10JumpLists
Matter

Style examples

Hide the focus assist section

Target: ActionCenter.FocusSessionControl
Style: Height=0

Hide the notification center

Target: Grid#NotificationCenterGrid
Style: Visibility=Collapsed

Shrink the notification center height

Makes panel non full-height when there are fewer notifications (fit to size).
Target: Grid#NotificationCenterGrid
Style: VerticalAlignment=2

Square the corners of the notification center

Target: Grid#NotificationCenterGrid
Style: CornerRadius=0

Square the corners of the calendar

Target: Grid#CalendarCenterGrid
Style: CornerRadius=0

Square the corners of the quick action center

Target: Grid#ControlCenterRegion
Style: CornerRadius=0

Calendar and notification titlebars: titles on the right, buttons on the left

Target: Grid#RootContent
Style: FlowDirection=1

Add accelerator key (Alt+X) to clear all notifications

Target: Button#ClearAll
Style: AccessKey=x

Add accelerator key (Alt+E) to expand/collapse the calendar

Target: Button#ExpandCollapseButton
Style: AccessKey=e

Transforms

You can use transformation styles to translate, rotate, scale, or skew elements.

Tip

Should I use RenderTransform or Transform3D?

For 2D transformations, it is best to stick to RenderTransform in most cases. Using Transform3D for 2D transformations can cause elements to become blurry. For 3D transformations, you must use Transform3D.

Tip

You can mix and match transformations when using Transform3D! You can also use RenderTransform and Transform3D together.

For example: Transform3D:=<CompositeTransform3D ScaleX="1.5" TranslateY="-15" RotationZ="15" />

Translate

RenderTransform:=<TranslateTransform X="15" Y="-15" />

-- or --

Transform3D:=<CompositeTransform3D TranslateX="15" TranslateY="-15" TranslateZ="-15" />

Rotate

RenderTransform:=<RotateTransform Angle="15" />

-- or --

Transform3D:=<CompositeTransform3D RotationX="-15" RotationY="15" RotationZ="-15" />

• X: 3D vertical rotation.
• Y: 3D horizontal rotation.
• Z: 2D rotation.

Scale

RenderTransform:=<ScaleTransform ScaleX="1.5" ScaleY="-1.5" />

-- or --

Transform3D:=<CompositeTransform3D ScaleX="-1.5" ScaleY="1.5" ScaleZ="-1.5" />

Skew

RenderTransform:=<SkewTransform AngleX="-15" AngleY="15" />

Other properties and attributes

• Applies to Rotate, Scale and Skew:

  • CenterX: Offsets the transform's origin on the X axis.
  • CenterY: Offsets the transform's origin on the Y axis.
  • CenterZ: Offsets the transform's origin on the Z axis. (Only for Transform3D)

  Example:

  RenderTransform:=<RotateTransform Angle="15" CenterX="10" CenterY="20" />
  

• RenderTransformOrigin

  • Applies to RenderTransform only, Transform3D does not support this attribute. It is a separate attribute and is not set inside of the RenderTransform like CenterX/Y/Z.
  • Sets the transform origin relative to its target's width and height. Format is X,Y and both numbers range from 0-1.

  Example:

  RenderTransformOrigin=0.5,0.5
  

  This centers the transform's origin.

• TransformGroup

  • Applies to RenderTransform only, Transform3D does not support this attribute. It is a separate attribute and is not set inside of the RenderTransform like CenterX/Y/Z.
  • Allows you to combine RenderTransforms together into one style, mimicking Transform3D's functionality.

  Example:

  RenderTransform:=<TransformGroup><RotateTransform Angle="15" /><TranslateTransform X="15" Y="-15" /></TransformGroup>
  

Colors

In the following examples, we will use Background as our style, but this also works for other properties that accept colors, such as Fill.

Solid color

Background=<color>

Replace <color> with the desired color.

A color can be a name (e.g. Red) or a hex code (e.g. #FF0000).

The color can be semi-transparent (e.g. #80FF0000). To have a fully transparent background, use Transparent or #00000000.

Accent colors

A Color can also be a ThemeResource or StaticResource. There are many such styles built into Windows.

Background:=<SolidColorBrush Color="{ThemeResource SystemAccentColor}" Opacity="0.8" />

Accent colors come as part of an accent color palette. This means that for any color you pick as your system accent color, 3 additional shades are part of that color's palette. For example: SystemAccentColorLight2 or SystemAccentColorDark1.

The word Light or Dark is appended at end with a number ranging from 1-3. See the official Microsoft docs for more information.

Background:=<SolidColorBrush Color="{ThemeResource SystemAccentColorDark2}" Opacity="0.5" />

Clear Transparent Background

To have a fully transparent background:

Style:

Background=Transparent

Acrylic effect as color

In order to use the acrylic effect (a blurred background) you can use the AcrylicBrush.

Background:=<AcrylicBrush TintColor="Black" TintOpacity="0.8" />

TintColor - Required. Defines what color to use.

TintOpacity - Defines the strength of the chosen color.

TintLuminosityOpacity - Defines the brightness of the acrylic effect.

BackgroundSource - Defines what should be considered the background of the acrylic effect. Set to "Backdrop" to use the desktop wallpaper.

Opacity - Defines how transparent the brush effect itself is. If set to less than 1, it blends the AcrylicBrush with clear transparency.

You can also set Acrylic to use an accent color for a more dynamic look, that fits current theme.

Background:=<AcrylicBrush TintColor="{ThemeResource SystemAccentColorDark2}" TintOpacity="0.3" />

Mica effect as color

Note

Unfortunately, it is not possible to set a Mica effect at this time with any of Windhawk's styler mods.

Gradient as color

The background can also be a gradient. For example, to have a gradient from yellow to red to blue to lime green, use the following style:

Background:=<LinearGradientBrush StartPoint="0,0.5" EndPoint="1,0.5"><GradientStop Color="Yellow" Offset="0.0" /><GradientStop Color="Red" Offset="0.25" /><GradientStop Color="Blue" Offset="0.75" /><GradientStop Color="LimeGreen" Offset="1.0" /></LinearGradientBrush>

Image as color

The background can also be an image:

Background:=<ImageBrush Stretch="UniformToFill" ImageSource="<image>" />

Replace <image> with your own image, a URL or a local file path. If you only see a fully transparent background when using a local file path, you must set a URL instead. Images can be jpg, jpg XR, png, bmp, svg, tiff, gif, or ico.

Stretch can be set to the following values:

None - Image is rendered at its native resolution and aspect ratio.

Fill - Image is stretched or squished to fill the size of the element.

Uniform - Image is resized to fit the element dimensions, while it preserves its native aspect ratio.

UniformToFill - Image is resized to fill the destination dimensions while it preserves its native aspect ratio. Crops to fit element.

Reveal as color

Note

Reveal is a deprecated XAML feature. It may have issues or stop working at any time.

Reveal is the cursor-based illumination effect from Windows 10.

Background:=<RevealBorderBrush Color="Transparent" TargetTheme="1" Opacity="1" />

BorderBrush:=<RevealBorderBrush Color="Transparent" TargetTheme="1" Opacity="1" />

Only RevealBorderBrush should be used, RevealBackgroundBrush does not work correctly in most scenarios.

Opacity can be changed to increase or decrease the intensity of the effect.

Work in progress

This document is a work in progress, contributions are welcome.
See also: The Windows 11 taskbar styling guide, The Windows 11 start menu styling guide.