From Windows XP onwards, the basic control look and feel have improved drastically. Previously, they were merely flat style controls without any effects- the maximum you can do is to change the control color and mouse cursor icon( I hope you do remember the Jungle Theme of those old win98 days). In Vista its even more stylish. But is it possible to give the same look & feel effects to our applications as well?

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Yes. You can. You just have to add a manifest file to your application. Well follow the detailed steps about how to do it. Well, we are going to apply Vista look and feel to the following dialog. ;)

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1) The manifest format is specified below. Copy it to notepad and change the “ExeName” to the name of your application. For instance if your exename is Rabbit.exe, then “ExeName” is “Rabbit”.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0">
<assemblyIdentity
    version="1.0.0.0"
    processorArchitecture="X86"
    name="ExeName"
    type="win32"
/>
<description>Application Description</description>
<dependency>
    <dependentAssembly>
        <assemblyIdentity
            type="win32"
            name="Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls"
            version="6.0.0.0"
            processorArchitecture="X86"
            publicKeyToken="6595b64144ccf1df"
            language="*"
        />
    </dependentAssembly>
</dependency>
</assembly>

2) Now insert a new resource.

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3) Now add a new Custom Resource with Resource ID as 24.

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4) Now copy-paste the manifest contents to new resource and save it. Make sure you’ve changed the “ExeName” to your application name.

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5) Now take the properties of our new resource – “IDR_DEFAULT1″.

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6) Now change the Resource ID to “1“.

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7) That’s it. Now compile and run the application. And now see the command buttons in Vista Style. Cool! isn’t it?

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I searched a lot for the screenshot of the old “Jungle Theme” of Windows 98. Its a pity that I couldn’t find it. :( If you find one such, please do notify. I’m getting nostalgic. ;)


Targeted Audience – Intermediate.