Enabling Backdrop Blur in A Desktop Application

Many modern UI designs feature a blurry window background. This page is a collection of my findings on regard to how to achieve this effect in your application in a standard or non-standard way.

This page does not intend to answer basic questions such as why this effect requires cooperation with a compositor and why applications can't just implement the effect, or provide an end-user-level guide.

Windows

The new UI design introduced in Windows Vista, dubbed Windows Aero Glass, applied a t…