More specifically I want to change Visual Effects. My goal is to press a button then have it change the 15 visual effects. Such as turning off "drop shadow" and disabling "fade/slide menus into view." I did a ton of searching and the only thing I accomplished is how to find out if it is enabled with something like this:
dropshadow = SystemInformation.IsDropShadowEnabled;
MessageBox.Show("Drop Shadow enabled:"+Convert.ToString(dropshadow));
This is for C#
I think you will need to use pinvoke to achieve this.
Have a look at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/97142
And here is a c# example http://www.pinvoke.net/default.aspx/user32.systemparametersinfo
Not sure if this covers everything you want, but should cover most.
This is what SystemInformation uses under the hood, I believe.
Related
I am interested in implementing Custom Chrome into one of my C# Applications. As i kept searching the internet for libraries that already took care of the main code, i found this: http://wpfwindow.codeplex.com/ . However, this is from 2009 and we are now in year 2014. I am also using Visual Studio 2013 Express for Windows Desktop.
I wanted to know if this resource is outdated, or can it still be implemented today? I am trying to achieve an effect like this:
but, i would like the windows close, minimize, etc. buttons as well as the titlebar in place. Is there any way i can achieve this effect without having to completely rewrite the form?
Something like below, but with custom colors for the header, and the form buttons. I would also like to have the option to remove certain buttons (and keep only the close button)
I also noticed this "Warning" for the essential window: Complete customization of WPF window can be done only when AllowsTransparency is set to "True", which causes that the window is software rendered which might be not as fast GPU rendering. This also made me skeptical on if i should use it or not.
Recap
1) I wanted to know if this resource is outdated, or can it still be implemented today?
2) Is there any way i can achieve this effect without having to completely rewrite the form?
3) Would customizing the entire form make the rendering slower?
Is someone know any .NET Winform control which look like this button control?
QPushButton:
http://zetcode.com/gui/csharpqyoto/layoutmanagement/
You have several options here. You aren't specific about exactly which part of the platform you are using, but if using Winforms, you can certainly customize the buttons to some extent.
If you are using WPF, you can pretty much make it look exactly like you want in XAML. Check out Expression Blend.
As #Dimitri put it, the sky is the limit, but you may need to do the leg work.
You can create custom controls according your need and have its reference added to your project. you will have it added to your toolbox that you can use.
If you are refering to a button that is located on this example form:
We currently finishing our own application that has rather similar looking buttons. We did this by using a third party component. Steps are:
We purchased DevExpress.com's WinForms library.
We developed our own DevExpress Skin (with the help of an external screen design guy)
This was a bit of a work and some amount of money but the results look pretty neat.
I wonder if there's any way i could reach and change the check boxes in the performance options (visual effects) from C#.
Now I reached only the advanced tab by:
control.exe sysdm.cpl,0,3
but I didn't know a way to continue any further ..
Also, in general, is there a way that we could change somethings in the control panel
via code ?
like increasing the mouse pointer speed, or adjusting screen resolution .. etc
(navigating via code)
it would be really cool .. :)
You can directly set the values: msdn. A similar theme has already been discussed here.
You can also click controls on the windows with UI Automation.
How would you get a button to look and perform similar to that of the buttons in the volume mixer on Win7?
What I mean is that in the volume mixer there are icons that doesn't look like buttons until you hover them, they also haven't got the standard blueish color when hovered.
So far I haven't found a way to do this directly in visual studio.
I'm guessing that creating a custom user control is the only way to go, but I've had no luck so far, I would appreciate some examples.
In addition, there are also combo boxes in the volume mixer I would like to duplicate. They're hidden except for the text and arrow until they're hovered.
Is there a way to accomplish this?
(Here an image that might help explain what I mean:
http://i53.tinypic.com/2ij409u.png)
For windows application, (and also how they did win7), they used the technology called WPF. I am not specifically answering how you can do this, because in WPF, this is the fundamental that defining skin (via markup called XAML) without touching the implementation code. If you are serious in learning how to do that, I suggest you look for tutorials or good book about WPF.
Here's one of the markup looks like for a button. To modify the button's look, what you need is to define it's XAML, and you don't have to inherit it in the code. The example looks scary long, but Visual Studio could help you.
You could use a third party control library, for example Krypton Toolkit, its free!
There is quite a terrific solution for this button quest. You can paste pictureBoxes on form and handle MouseUp, MouseLeft and MouseDown events. When each of them fires, you need to set specific image (one of tree, in fact) - normal picture, picture of "highlighted" icon and picture of pressed icon. But that's really a hard and useless work, so better don't.
If you need several of such "buttons" in a panel, I remember, I once managed to get the same behaviour by using toolStrip with buttons.
I'm starting my first C# project, and I want to make a "form designer" (like the one in VS).
The idea is, there will be a visual form designer with a limited toolbox, which will generate Python code (later more) to create the same form.
Problem is, I have no idea how to even get started. First of all, I have the form designer in VS: how do I make a "form-within-a-form?"
Next... I have no idea how complicated this is going to be. I suppose I could just make little boxes appear beside each control created on the form when it is clicked, for resizing, and make a textbox appear on it when double clicked or something, to change the text in it... Things like this.
So another thing I would like to know is this:
I do have programming experience in C and C++, I've done PHP for a number of years and am starting with Python as of recently. I've generated forms dynamically in VB6. Given this experience, am I in way over my head with this project?
this looks like a really good place to start. It has a pretty good example to get you started. You can even download his source (registration required).
It sounds like you're aware it's non-trivial for a C# first-timer. If you keep it pretty simple, it sounds like you're heading in the right direction (although a web-based form designer might be easier).
SharpDevelop would be an example of a full-featured IDE that can be re-purposed, but that's way over the top.
Good luck!
For most people starting out in C#, this project would be too much. With your VB6 background, you may be able to pull it off, though.
Here's a hint: the Visual Studio Windows Forms designer draws controls on its surface - by asking the controls to draw themselves.