How to get System Color? [RESOLVED]

Does anyone know how to check colors in which the system is configured to use for windows , etcin VB?

For example, the preference window color of XP and win2k is totally different, in my VB program i can't hardcode any of my windows to any colow if it were to be set enabled. How do i read preference colow and then set it accordingly in my program?

Thank you
leng wai

If you just want to set a backcolor or forecolor property, you can use the color constants in code like this:
Me.BackColor = vbButtonFace
or you can set it at design time (use the colors from the system tab in the property window).


These are the other constants (From MSDN):
Constant Value Description
vbScrollBars &H80000000 Scroll bar color
vbDesktop &H80000001 Desktop color
vbActiveTitleBar &H80000002 Color of the title bar for the active window
vbInactiveTitleBar &H80000003 Color of the title bar for the inactive window
vbMenuBar &H80000004 Menu background color
vbWindowBackground &H80000005 Window background color
vbWindowFrame &H80000006 Window frame color
vbMenuText &H80000007 Color of text on menus
vbWindowText &H80000008 Color of text in windows
vbTitleBarText &H80000009 Color of text in caption, size box, and scroll arrow
vbActiveBorder &H8000000A Border color of active window
vbInactiveBorder &H8000000B Border color of inactive window
vbApplicationWorkspace &H8000000C Background color of multiple-document interface (MDI) applications
vbHighlight &H8000000D Background color of items selected in a control
vbHighlightText &H8000000E Text color of items selected in a control
vbButtonFace &H8000000F Color of shading on the face of command buttons
vbButtonShadow &H80000010 Color of shading on the edge of command buttons
vbGrayText &H80000011 Grayed (disabled) text
vbButtonText &H80000012 Text color on push buttons
vbInactiveCaptionText &H80000013 Color of text in an inactive caption
vb3DHighlight &H80000014 Highlight color for 3D display elements
vb3DDKShadow &H80000015 Darkest shadow color for 3D display elements
vb3DLight &H80000016 Second lightest of the 3D colors after vb3Dhighlight
vb3DFace &H8000000F Color of text face
vb3Dshadow &H80000010 Color of text shadow
vbInfoText &H80000017 Color of text in ToolTips
vbInfoBackground &H80000018 Background color of ToolTips

This may help you:-

VB Code:

Private Declare Function SetSysColors Lib "user32" (ByVal nChanges As Long, lpSysColor As Long, lpColorValues As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GetSysColor Lib "user32" (ByVal nIndex As Long) As Long
Const COLOR_SCROLLBAR = 0 'The Scrollbar colour
Const COLOR_BACKGROUND = 1 'Colour of the background with no wallpaper
Const COLOR_ACTIVECAPTION = 2 'Caption of Active Window
Const COLOR_INACTIVECAPTION = 3 'Caption of Inactive window
Const COLOR_MENU = 4 'Menu
Const COLOR_WINDOW = 5 'Windows background
Const COLOR_WINDOWFRAME = 6 'Window frame
Const COLOR_MENUTEXT = 7 'Window Text
Const COLOR_WINDOWTEXT = 8 '3D dark shadow (Win95)
Const COLOR_CAPTIONTEXT = 9 'Text in window caption
Const COLOR_ACTIVEBORDER = 10 'Border of active window
Const COLOR_INACTIVEBORDER = 11 'Border of inactive window
Const COLOR_APPWORKSPACE = 12 'Background of MDI desktop
Const COLOR_HIGHLIGHT = 13 'Selected item background
Const COLOR_HIGHLIGHTTEXT = 14 'Selected menu item
Const COLOR_BTNFACE = 15 'Button
Const COLOR_BTNSHADOW = 16 '3D shading of button
Const COLOR_GRAYTEXT = 17 'Grey text, of zero if dithering is used.
Const COLOR_BTNTEXT = 18 'Button text
Const COLOR_INACTIVECAPTIONTEXT = 19 'Text of inactive window
Const COLOR_BTNHIGHLIGHT = 20 '3D highlight of button
Const COLOR_2NDACTIVECAPTION = 27 'Win98 only: 2nd active window color
Const COLOR_2NDINACTIVECAPTION = 28 'Win98 only: 2nd inactive window color
Private Sub Form_Load()
    'KPD-Team 1998
    'URL: [url]http://www.allapi.net/[/url]
    'E-Mail: [email][email protected][/email]
    'Get the caption's active color
    col& = GetSysColor(COLOR_ACTIVECAPTION)
    'Change the active caption's color to red
    t& = SetSysColors(1, COLOR_ACTIVECAPTION, RGB(255, 0, 0))
    MsgBox "The old title bar color was" + Str$(col&) + " and is now" + Str$(GetSysColor(COLOR_ACTIVECAPTION))
End Sub

Thanks a lot man .. i'm sure this rest my case for now.