Windows folder icon transparency.

Set the folder icon to 30 to 50 percent and apply it to archived or rarely opened folders. The fade says 'not active' while the folder works as before.

100 for active projects, 70 for reference, 40 for archives: a hierarchy you can scan without reading labels.

Not natively. Compose the overlay on the folder in an image editor, then pack the result as ICO and apply it.

Pack the PNG as ICO, then right-click the folder, Properties, Customize, Change Icon, and pick the file; the transparency shows in Explorer.

Yes: whatever is behind the icon shows through, wallpaper or desktop color.

Test against both. 40 to 60 percent usually reads on light and dark; very low opacity vanishes on dark.

Solid multiplies every pixel's alpha by the opacity you set. Linear fades from full to your value across the icon in the direction you pick. Radial fades from the centre out, or the edges in, with a radius. On a 16-pixel icon, solid is the one that reads.

Yes. The new opacity multiplies the alpha the icon already has, so transparent areas stay transparent and anti-aliased edges stay soft.

The largest frame of the ICO is processed and the result is a PNG with an 8-bit alpha channel. Pack it as an ICO with the PNG to ICO tool when it goes back on a shortcut or a favicon.ico.

No. The ICO is read and its frames decoded by JavaScript on your device; the page makes no request with your file. Load it, go offline and it still works.

No. The "Windows folder icon transparency" tool is free and opens without a sign-in, an account or an install.

Nothing. The "Windows folder icon transparency" tool holds your input in the page's memory, so closing or reloading the tab clears it, and it saves nothing in this browser.

Up to 100 MB per file, the limit the tool states under its drop area. A larger file is refused with a plain message instead of being decoded.

No, it takes one file at a time. If you drop or choose several, only the first is used; run the tool again for the next one.

The edit is written as a PNG because PNG stores every pixel exactly, with a full alpha channel, so the result can be edited again without a second round of loss.

No. The browser decodes the image and the tool writes a new file from its pixels, so camera EXIF, GPS position and text chunks in the original are not copied into the result. Keep the original file if you need them.

No. The result has the same width and height in pixels as the source.

Closest to the "Windows folder icon transparency" tool: ICO opacity changer, Custom folder icon colors, Windows desktop theme icons, Desktop shortcut icon fade. Each opens on its own page, free and in the browser.

The "Windows folder icon transparency" tool is one of 37 in its group. The group's page, /tools/ico, lists them all.

The tool is free. Its interface is built from shadcn.io's own components (Button, Input, Slider and the rest of the registry under /ui), which come in React, Vue, Svelte and Solid. Pro adds the blocks and templates for the product around it.