.NET for Windows Vista - Look and Feel

Wed, Oct 18, 2006 @ 1:53 PM - Josh Einstein

I am really big on consistent user interfaces. I like it when things integrate well with a host and I like when the lines are blurred as to where the host ends and the application begins. That's the approach I took with Tablet Enhancements for Outlook when I went with an Office look and feel for the TEO forms. In version 2.0 it was... eh. But in 3.0 I think I did a pretty good job of mimicking the Outlook forms. Of course, I still have to make it look and feel like Outlook 2007 now, but that's another story.

So anyway, while working on a new product, I decided I was going to go for the Vista look-and-feel. Since the application's main interface is supposed to function basically the same as the Control Panel, I used the Windows Vista Control Panel as my inspiration. But in doing so, I wound up with a few useful byproducts.

• A custom renderer for ToolStrip that nearly perfectly reproduces the Windows Vista toolbar and menus.
• A base form that lets Aero glass creep into the client area with Vista-looking back/forward buttons, breadcrumb box, and search box.
• Another base form (subclass of the previous base form) that provides the Control Panel's background bitmap and the enhanced status bar.

In upcoming posts, I will detail these three reusable components and even share the source code to my Vista-style ToolStrip renderer which can be added to your applications as easily as:

myToolStrip.Renderer = new VistaToolStripRenderer();

But for now, here's a screen shot of what it all looks like (bugs in the glass part so that's why there's no text).