Use visual style on windows and buttons

Note the different appearance of the buttons in the client area. The buttons look different because the system has applied the visual styles that are defined in the Aero theme. The following example shows a similar dialog box on a Windows 8 desktop.

In Windows 8, visual styles are always on, so Windows 8 apps get theming "for free". The visual styles API depends on a system service called Themes. The common control library queries the Themes service to get style-related information and, up through Windows 7, uses the service to render controls in the current visual style. This means that the common controls and the non-client area of windows will still have visual styles when the Themes service is off. The Windows 8 features that still require the Themes service include:.

The visual styles API gets style information from the. To use visual styles, your application must be running on an operating system that contains ComCtl If you want your application to use ComCtl For information on how to create an application manifest that enables your application to use visual styles, see Enabling Visual Styles. For common controls, no further action is necessary to ensure that the controls are displayed in the user's preferred visual style.

If your application contains custom or owner-drawn controls, you need to use the visual styles API to retrieve information about the currently active visual style, and to draw the controls in that style.

Feedback will be sent to Microsoft: By pressing the submit button, your feedback will be used to improve Microsoft products and services. Privacy policy. This topic describes how to use the visual styles API to apply visual styles to custom controls or owner-drawn controls. Visual styles are supported by ComCtrl If your application is configured to use ComCtrl However, the current visual styles are not automatically applied to custom controls or owner-drawn controls.

Your application must include code that checks whether visual styles are available and, if so, uses the visual styles API to apply the currently selected visual styles to your custom and owner-drawn controls. To check whether visual styles are available, call the IsAppThemed function. If visual styles are not available, use fallback code to draw the control.

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