Using Windows XP Styles in your MFC/WIN32 Applications

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Introduction

I wanted to try and write an article for the The Code Project and thought this would be a good start. It's a little short but hopefully a few people will find it useful. If you have any suggestions on the article let me know.

So what's it about?

This article will show you how to quickly and easily add the capability to use themes under XP. This means whatever theme the user is using under Windows XP will control the look of your application. See the example below:

Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000

Windows XP

Manifest yourself

One of the first things that need to be done to use XP Styles in your MFC application is to create the manifest XML file for your application. You can paste the following code into a new notepad document and save it in a file called manifest.xml. Save this file in your project directory. It's not required, but you can fill in the description and name of your application if you would like.

<?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="CompanyName.ProductName.YourApp" 
  type="win32"
 /> 
 
 <description>Your application description here.</description> 
 <dependency> 
  <dependentAssembly> 
   <assemblyIdentity 
    type="win32" 
    name="Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls" 
    version="6.0.0.0" 
    processorArchitecture="X86" 
    publicKeyToken="6595b64144ccf1df" 
    language="*" 
   />
  </dependentAssembly> 
 </dependency> 
</assembly>

Once that is completed, you will want to add the manifest.xml file to your project in the resource editor. In Visual Studio 6, hit Ctrl+R to add a new resource, select all files and double click manifest.xml to add the file. When you see the custom resource dialog, enter the number "24" as the resource type and hit OK. Once imported, right click on the resource to open the properties window and change the ID to the number "1".

Just one line...

To initialize everything you need to call InitCommonControls() in your program. I usually put this in the InitInstance() function but you can also use in the InitDialog() and still have it work. It should look something like this:

//Make sure this is here so you can use XP Styles
InitCommonControls();

Now when you run your program you should see XP style controls in your program, unless of course you have Windows XP set to the classic style which then everything will pretty much look the same.

I want more info!

If you're looking for some more information on using XP themes in your code I would recommend checking one of the best resources I have found for information on MSDN. The page is here.