Windows Form Theme Visual Studio .NET

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Hello there!

So I am developning a webbrowser at the moment and I was just wondering if there is a way to create themes in Visual Studio, Like I would like to change the theme of the Windows Form itself.

Would I need a third-party software or would I hard code that.
Thanks!
For example, I would love to change the looks of this piece right here.

https://gyazo.com/170165074354e39a290ba30e444ca42d[This right here]

Posted 14-Nov-15 17:23pm

BladeLogan

Updated 14-Nov-15 17:40pm

v4

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BillWoodruff 15-Nov-15 1:40am

search CodeProject on "Themes," and do a Google search on "C# customize titlebar"

BladeLogan 15-Nov-15 5:00am

Thank you sir!
I wasnt completly sure on what to search for. I am quite new to C# & The VS IDE.
2 months upcoming!

BillWoodruff 15-Nov-15 11:30am

See my comments posted as "solution" here.

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Krunal Rohit · Answer 1 · 2015-11-14T18:33:00

Solution 1

Umm, WinForm doesn't offer much to customize. You can't change them easily. Read this thread[^]. But you can move to WPF for that matter.

Or try using 3rd party tools, I guess you'd like this:
Winforms SkinFramework[^]
http://skincrafter.com/[^]
https://www.devexpress.com/[^]

-KR

Posted 14-Nov-15 18:33pm

Krunal Rohit

Updated 14-Nov-15 18:35pm

v2

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BladeLogan 15-Nov-15 4:52am

What do you mean by "But you can move to WPF for that matter."
Would I just move the whole project into a WPF format? & Would that give me the option to change the titlebar easier?

Krunal Rohit 15-Nov-15 5:21am

Like I said, WinForm doesn't offer much to customize.

-KR

BillWoodruff · Answer 2 · 2015-11-15T05:30:00

All of us here were "new" once, so don't feel alone.

The important thing is for you to define what "theming" is for your application(s). The term "theming" can mean many different things.

I suggest you start by making a list of exactly what features you want to provide the end-user at run-time.

The ability to edit the look-and-feel of any Form, or Control, or UserControl ?

Some special editing facility that makes it easy to set visual properties for any UI element which will then be applied (are inherited by) all UI elements that are "within" the outer element (Control, Form, UserControl) ?

Do you want the user to be able to modify standard Form elements like TitleBar ?

Once you define the required features, you will be, imho, in a better place to evaluate investing in WPF compared to using Windows Forms.

I disagree with the comments of Krunal Rohit here: while it is more difficult, in general, to do theming in Windows Forms than WPF, the reasons for that involve the total architecture differences between the two "platforms." There is visual inheritance of Form/Controls in Windows Forms, just as there is in WPF.

You can, indeed, do theming in Windows Forms, and people have done it as you'll see in the links I referred you to. What's fair to say is that it will take more effort, more code, on your part to implement "theming" in Windows Forms ... if you do this "on your own," without using other people's code.

On a practical level, choosing WPF will involve learning a new paradigm for programming .NET applications ... a very powerful one ... one with (for most people) a very steep initial learning curve.