GNOME 17.10 Panel is transparent if app is not full screen

Question

It seems that in GNOME 17.10 they've changed the operation of the Panel. (I'm using Xorg, not Wayland).

If I view the desktop, the top panel is transparent. If I view an application or Nautilus window not in full screen mode, the Panel is transparent, however, if I view an application or Nautilus window in full screen mode, the Panel is black.

I believe that this behavior is different than GNOME 17.04, where I believe that the Panel was always black (not transparent). Am I correct?

In 17.10, is there a way to make the top panel always show as black (non transparent)?

Answer 1

Dynamic transparency of the top bar is a feature of GNOME shell version 3.26 (the one shipped with Ubuntu 17.10).

You may try one of the following to disable this feature:

• Change the shell theme to one which overrides this dynamic transparency feature and makes the top bar always opaque.
  GNOME-LOOK.ORG is a good place to find various themes.

• Use "Dynamic Panel Transparency" extension and set 100% for both "Maximized Opacity" and "Unmaximized Opacity".
  See my answer to this question for reference: How do I make top bar always transparent like Ubuntu dock in Ubuntu 17.10?