Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways Apple's Liquid Glass desktop has finally arrived. Although you can't configure everything, you can make some tweaks. Liquid Glass comes with MacOS Tahoe, which is a free upgrade. I've been giddy with excitement about MacOS Tahoe for just one simple reason: Liquid Glass. Let me explain. Also: How to decide between Linux and MacOS - if you're ready to ditch Windows You see, I'm a hard-core Linux user who has spent countless hours tweaking desktop environments to make them look exactly how I want. In fact, I can't remember a Linux desktop that I didn't tweak. Take, for instance, KDE Plasma, which can be configured to look very glassy and elegant. This custom KDE Plasma desktop is what Liquid Glass should look like. Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET So, when Apple announced it was making a bold change to the MacOS desktop, I was excited. Last week, I waited patiently for Tahoe to become available for both my MacBook Pro and my iMac. The update came to the iMac first, which was shortly followed by the MacBook. The upgrade took longer than I expected. For a moment, I thought my iMac was caught in a startup loop. Thankfully, that was not the case. About an hour later, the upgrade was complete. I logged in, expecting to be greeted by the most elegant desktop I've ever seen. I was a bit disappointed. Also: This new Linux desktop is almost a dead ringer for OS X Understand that I've grown accustomed to gorgeous desktops for a very long time. (Thank you, Linux!) I've had glassy, transparent windows and menus for years, so Liquid Glass didn't immediately strike me as anything new. But after using it for a while, I realized Liquid Glass wasn't just about a bunch of transparency and a glassy theme. You have to look at this new MacOS desktop as a whole. It all comes together to make for a very elegant UI. When I consider the look, the smooth animations, and the slightly transparent menus, Liquid Glass might be the most polished desktop I've ever used. However, I did dive into the settings to see what could be tweaked and thought I'd share those customizations with you. There weren't as many options as I expected. I assumed I'd be able to add the glassy look to titlebars and even app windows. Alas, that is not the case. It's still the MacOS UI, only with some seriously glassy polish. OK, let's take a look at some of the customizations. Appearance This is where most of your changes will happen. Open System Settings and click on Appearance in the sidebar. This is where you can change various colors, such as the default theme color, the icon and widget style, the folder color, and more. I like the option to change the icon and widget style to clear, as it makes the look even more glass-like. Do note that the icon and widget style option doesn't actually change the look of the desktop widgets. There's plenty to customize here, but it does lack a Liquid Glass section. Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET What is odd about this (and most every entry in System Settings) is that you don't find any mention of Liquid Glass. I think this is a mistake on Apple's part. It would make far more sense to have a Liquid Glass entry, accessible from the sidebar, that collects all options pertaining to the feature together. Sadly, that is not the case, and finding options relating to Liquid Glass is not easy. Also: 5 ways to run Windows apps on MacOS - and 2 are free - ZDNET The Menu Bar Before I get into this, know that I also use an app called Bartender, which allows me to further tweak the Menu Bar to better match my style. Because of that, you won't be able to get your top bar to look exactly the same as mine (unless you install Bartender). Never overlook the Menu Bar for customization (and install Bartender, if you haven't already). Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET With that out of the way, let's see how you can "glassify" the Menu Bar. Open System Settings and click on Menu Bar in the left sidebar. There's really not much you can change here, but you can do the following: Enable/disable autohide. Show the menubar background. Configure the number of recent documents to show. Add/remove controls in the Control Center. Enable application items in the Menu Bar. Accessibility You can only make one tweak here: Enable/Disable transparency. This is an on/off situation, and you can not customize the amount of transparency. There's really only one option to configure here, and that pretty much disables the transparency of Liquid Glass. Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET Where are the settings? As I mentioned earlier, it would be nice if there as a location that gathered all the settings related to Liquid Glass in one convenient location. However, there really isn't much you can tweak. That being said, there are enough small things you can change to turn Liquid Glas into something special. Here are the items I have tweaked: Desktop & Dock > Dim widgets on desktop - never Appearance > Icon & Widget Style - clear Appearance > Theme Color - pink Appearance > Folder Color - pink Appearance > "Tint window background with wallpaper color - enabled Menu Bar > "Show Menu Bar background" - disabled Accessibility > Display "Reduce transparency" - disabled Also: How to make any MacOS app start at login - to save you time and clicks Once you've taken care of the above, you should see a unique MacOS desktop that is elegant, useful, and all yours. I wish there were more options, such as applying the "glass" look to title bars and making some applications a bit transparent. Sadly, that's not the case. Even so, you can still give your MacOS desktop a nice refresh, thanks to Liquid Glass.