Changing form's titlebar colors

Hello all.

I am trying to change the colors of a form, especially the colors of the titlebar at run-time.

I am using the GetSysColor API call with the constant COLOR_ACTIVEBORDER to retrieve the color of the titlebar.

However, when using the SetSysColors API call I have some problems.
The more fundemental of those is about the declaration of the call :

Declare Function SetSysColors& Lib "user32" (ByVal nChanges As Long, lpSysColor As Long, lpColorValues As Long)

As you can see guys the lpSysColor is passed byref, as well as the lpColorValues. OK, in my documentation, these are long pointers to matrices, each having a length of nChanges elements. I am creating 2 matrices let's say matrSC and matrCV, each of nChanges elements. When using the declaration I simply pass matrSC() or matrCV(), with no arguments (I hope this passes the pointer to the matrix).
This causes an error; clearly I am making a mistake... Any help ?? :confused:


One more important thing : AM I USING THE CORRECT DECLARATION AT ALL ????!!!!? Any ideas ??? :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

The below code will perform a 'MSN Messenger' style titlebar flash when executed. The below code will need to be launched via a thread otherwise the colour change event gets locked on one colour and wont flash. I also havent found out how to get it to flash when the forms minimised to the startbar.

Code:

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    Private Declare Function SetSysColors Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal nChanges As Int32, ByRef lpSysColor As SystemColor, ByRef lpColorValues As Int32) As Int32
    Private Declare Function GetSysColor Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal nIndex As Int32) As Int32

    Public Enum SystemColor As Integer
        ScrollBar = 0 'The Scrollbar colour
        BackGround = 1 'Colour of the background with no wallpaper
        ActiveCaption = 2 'Caption of Active Window
        InactiveCaption = 3 'Caption of Inactive window
        Menu = 4 'Menu
        Window = 5 'Windows background
        WindowFrame = 6 'Window frame
        MenuText = 7 'Window Text
        WindowText = 8 '3D dark shadow (Win95)
        CaptionText = 9 'Text in window caption
        ActiveBorder = 10 'Border of active window
        InactiveBorder = 11 'Border of inactive window
        AppWorkspace = 12 'Background of MDI desktop
        Highlight = 13 'Selected item background
        HighlightText = 14 'Selected menu item
        BtnFace = 15 'Button
        BtnShadow = 16 '3D shading of button
        GrayText = 17 'Grey text, of zero if dithering is used.
        BtnText = 18 'Button text
        InactiveCaptionText = 19 'Text of inactive window
        BtnHightList = 20 '3D highlight of button
        SecondActiveCatpion = 27 'Win98 only: 2nd active window color
        SecondInactiveCaption = 28 'Win98 only: 2nd inactive window color
    End Enum

    Sub highlightform()
        ' This sub procedue needs to be launched via a thread

        Dim i As Integer
        ' Store the position within the for loop
        Dim colour1 As Integer
        Dim colour2 As Integer
        Dim colour3 As Integer
        Dim colour4 As Integer
        ' Store the orginal Windows colours
        Dim value1 As Integer = 228
        Dim value2 As Integer = 67
        Dim value3 As Integer = 18
        ' Define the red/blue/green values

        colour1 = GetSysColor(SystemColor.ActiveCaption)
        colour2 = GetSysColor(SystemColor.SecondActiveCatpion)
        colour3 = GetSysColor(SystemColor.InactiveCaption)
        colour4 = GetSysColor(SystemColor.SecondInactiveCaption)
        ' Store the orginal colour values

        For i = 0 To 12
            ' Perform the below actions 12 times

            thread.Sleep(400)
            ' Sleep to allow the API time to perform its colour change

            SetSysColors(1, SystemColor.ActiveCaption, RGB(value1, value2, value3))
            SetSysColors(1, SystemColor.SecondActiveCatpion, RGB(value1, value2, value3))
            SetSysColors(1, SystemColor.InactiveCaption, RGB(value1, value2, value3))
            SetSysColors(1, SystemColor.SecondInactiveCaption, RGB(value1, value2, value3))
            ' Change the colour

            thread.Sleep(400)
            ' Sleep to allow the API time to perform its colour change

            SetSysColors(1, SystemColor.ActiveCaption, colour1)
            SetSysColors(1, SystemColor.SecondActiveCatpion, colour2)
            SetSysColors(1, SystemColor.InactiveCaption, colour3)
            SetSysColors(1, SystemColor.SecondInactiveCaption, colour4)
            ' Change the colour back to default

        Next

        SetSysColors(1, SystemColor.ActiveCaption, colour1)
        SetSysColors(1, SystemColor.SecondActiveCatpion, colour2)
        SetSysColors(1, SystemColor.InactiveCaption, colour3)
        SetSysColors(1, SystemColor.SecondInactiveCaption, colour4)
        ' Change the colour back to default

    End Sub

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