Skinnable Controls

[Bieb]

I'm running Windows blinds on my computer, and for some reason, it seems that all the controls in commercial applications get skinned by Windows Blinds, but apps I write in Visual Basic or MASM with Easy Code, everything always stay the same.  Why is this?

[Ramon Sala]

Hi Bieb,

WindowBlinds is a program that enables users to safely add thousands of new visual styles to Windows, but
it has to be purchased! As Easy Code is a freeware program, and there also are other additions (Windows Gizmo, etc.) that users could ask for, I cannot spend money purchasing commercial programs. I'm affraid there is nothing to do about that.

Regards,

Ramon

[Eóin]

I don't know much about windows blinds but maybe it uses something like the WinXP styles manifest to decide what applications to skin. Perhaps you'll just need to set that for your apps.

[Ramon Sala]

Hi,

I'll try to find out more about windows blinds, but it's strange that Visual Basic does not support it.

Regards,

Ramon

[Bieb]

Windows Blinds isn't something that the developer uses to skin their applications.  It is an application, developed by StarDock (www.stardock.com) that is installed on a Windows machine, and allows the user to choose "skins", which change the look of the taskbar, windows, and controls.  I would think that it would work with all applications, but perhaps there is some small tweak that has to be done to allow it to function.

[rh150]

Perhaps VB app use different name for Class control. That's why they're not supported.

[Bieb]

I'm currently using the unregisteled version, and in the nag message, it says that the registered version skins non theme aware applications.  What's that mean?

[jimh]

"Theme aware" sometimes refers to applications (especially when you are owner-drawing something) that load the UXTHEME.DLL and tell it to draw your interface elements.  Most of the time making your app "theme aware" involves little more than adding a manifest to your project and then calling InitCommonControls.