Completely Transparent Menus in Microsoft Edge on Windows 11, Making Them Extremely Difficult to Read

Question

Hi. I have recently discovered that all the menus (such as pop-outs and context menus) are completely transparent, making the text nearly impossible to read. Screenshots have been attached. I am running Windows 11 21H2, build 22000.556 on a virtual machine, and Microsoft Edge version 99.0.1150.39. I have tried to completely reinstall Microsoft Edge, do a repair install of the OS, and create a new user profile, but none of them resolved the issue. I have also disabled the flag "Enable Windows 11 Acrylic effect in menus**"** (edge://flags/#edge-visual-rejuv-materials-menu), it did fix the context menu and the "three-dot" menu, however, menus like Downloads and Favorites remain fully transparent. If anyone encountered the same issue and/or knows how to resolve this, please let me know. Thanks!

Answer 1

In addition to disabling the Windows 11 Acrylic, search flags for "Choose ANGLE graphics backend" and set it to "D3D11on12".

Answer 2

Hi.

Disable Hardware Acceleration in Edge.

VMware has an open issue pertaining to this:

https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Workstation-Pro/bd-p/3023

Hope this helps for now.

:)

Answer 3

The problem occurs after installing VMWare Tools. Disabling the Windows 11 Acrylic and Mica options in Edge does NOT fix the problem. There is definitely an incompatibility between the new Edge UI code and the VMWare Tools display driver. I'm running the latest version of Workstation Pro, 16.2.3 build-1937653

Thank you for confirming. I am using the free version of VMware Workstation 16 player, 16.2.3 build-19376536. I tried uninstalling VMWare Tools, it did fix the issue because obviously it removes all the transparency effects and leaves with a very low resolution, and is definitely not ideal. We may need to send some feedback to VMware as well.

Answer 4

The problem occurs after installing VMWare Tools. Disabling the Windows 11 Acrylic and Mica options in Edge does NOT fix the problem. There is definitely an incompatibility between the new Edge UI code and the VMWare Tools display driver. I'm running the latest version of Workstation Pro, 16.2.3 build-1937653

Answer 5

The problem occurs after installing VMWare Tools. Disabling the Windows 11 Acrylic and Mica options in Edge does NOT fix the problem. There is definitely an incompatibility between the new Edge UI code and the VMWare Tools display driver. I'm running the latest version of Workstation Pro, 16.2.3 build-1937653

Thank you for confirming. I am using the free version of VMware Workstation 16 player, 16.2.3 build-19376536. I tried uninstalling VMWare Tools, it did fix the issue because obviously it removes all the transparency effects and leaves with a very low resolution, and is definitely not ideal. We may need to send some feedback to VMware as well.

I can also confirm this!

If you could place a trouble ticket with VMWare it would be most appreciated.

This is a very annoying problem. I will also contact VMWare as well.

Thanks! :)