WinXP buttons, etc.

[donut]

anyone know how can i make my program use winxp-style controls, rather than the boring old classic stuff?

[BG]

http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.p...381#post847381

[donut]

hmmm, but that only appears to be for various controls, and i don't really want to use third party stuff. surely there must be some API you can use that tells winxp to use winxp-style controls? i mean, many programs are now developed to support xp, and use xp-style controls.

[kovan]

i swear i had a direct link to this

damn it where did it go

anyways
search for "MANIFESTS" on ms site

[kovan]

Follow these steps to introduce Windows XP visual styles into your Windows
application.

1. Create a new Windows Application and add some controls to the default 
form.

2. For every control you place on the form that has a FlatStyle property, 
set
   the property to System.

3. Compile your application.

4. Build a manifest file in the application directory. NOTE: This manifest 
file
   must be located in the same directory as the executable.

   Open Notepad and place the code shown below in the file.

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
   <assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0">
   <description>.NET control deployment tool</description>
   <dependency>
           <dependentAssembly>
                   <assemblyIdentity
                           type="win32"
                           name="Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls"
                           version="6.0.0.0"
                           processorArchitecture="X86"
                           publicKeyToken="6595b64144ccf1df"
                           language="*"
                   />
           </dependentAssembly>
   </dependency>
   </assembly>

   Save the file in the application directory with the name of the 
application
   and an extension of exe.manifest. For instance, if your application name 
is
   "MyApp", you will name the manifest file as MyApp.exe.manifest.

5. When your application runs, Windows XP looks at the application manifest
   which tells the operating system to use common controls library version 
6.0.

[donut]

excellent, thanks man

[BG]

Thanks Kovan, You Da Man!

[donut]

by the way, if anyone's interested, i just tried this for devenv.exe (the vs.net exe), which will make vs.net use the xp visual styles too

[MrPolite]

I didnt get what you mean "donut" what about devenv.exe? doesnt that just run VS.NET? what does it have to do with XP style then?

[kovan]

the lost link

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...ndowsForms.asp (MORE DETAILS)

[donut]

"MrPolite" , what i mean is that the vs.net IDE uses the windows classic style by default (ie. blocky grey buttons, etc.), but using the xml code that kovan supplied, you can make it use xp visual styles.