windowsformsaero Wiki & Documentation Rss Feed

Updated Wiki: Home

marcom — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:00:52 GMT

Windows Forms Aero is a project started by Marco Minerva on January 30th, 2007.

This project aims to create a Windows Control Library that provides controls reproducing the appearance of Microsoft Aero graphic objects, like buttons and links with shield icon, textboxes with cue banner, etc.

System requirements

Visual C# 2008 Express Edition or Visual Studio 2008
A system running Windows Vista or Windows 7

The current version contains several native Vista controls (such as Buttons, Combo boxes with cue banner, Command links, native List views, Progress bars, explorer-like TreeView...) and some modules that empower the user to exploit some of Vista's advanced GUI features (Glass sheet effect, text on glass, live thumbnails and the new Task dialogs).
The intellisense documentation file is now available as well.

Screenshots

The demo applications shows off some of the native Vista controls and the Glass sheet effect.

An example of a rather complex Task Dialog. The library includes a complete implementation of the Task dialog API, including task dialog navigation, events and animation.

An example of using the HorizontalPanel and LabeledDivider to create a Windows 7 style form (minus the IE like controls at the top).

For more information about the new controls that are available in Windows Vista, take a look at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511456.aspx

Documentation and Samples

The complete documentation is currently work in progress.
Documentation
Samples

Applications using the library

OnTopReplica, utility that allows you to clone a window and keep it "always on top"

Updated Wiki: Home

bpell — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 17:03:01 GMT

System requirements

Visual C# 2008 Express Edition or Visual Studio 2008
A system running Windows Vista operating system

Screenshots

Documentation and Samples

The complete documentation is currently work in progress.
Documentation
Samples

Applications using the library

OnTopReplica, utility that allows you to clone a window and keep it "always on top"

Updated Wiki: Home

bpell — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 19:13:49 GMT

System requirements

Visual C# 2008 Express Edition or Visual Studio 2008
A system running Windows Vista operating system

Screenshots

Documentation and Samples

The complete documentation is currently work in progress.
Documentation
Samples

Applications using the library

OnTopReplica, utility that allows you to clone a window and keep it "always on top"

UPDATED WIKI: V2_Preview

jachymko — Fri, 09 May 2008 02:06:12 GMT

Lo and behold!

- TabStrip & AeroTabControl

- DataTip control

UPDATED WIKI: V2_Preview

jachymko — Fri, 09 May 2008 02:04:01 GMT

Lo and behold!

- TabStrip & AeroTabControl (IMG TBD)

- DataTip control (IMG TBD)

UPDATED WIKI: Home

marcom — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 13:52:32 GMT

System requirements

Visual C# 2008 Express Edition or Visual Studio 2008
A system running Windows Vista operating system

Screenshots

The demo applications shows off some of the native Vista controls and the Glass sheet effect.

An example of a rather complex Task Dialog. The library includes a complete implementation of the Task dialog API, including task dialog navigation, events and animation.

For more information about the new controls that are available in Windows Vista, take a look at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511456.aspx

Documentation and Samples

The complete documentation is currently work in progress.
Documentation
Samples

Applications using the library

OnTopReplica, utility that allows you to clone a window and keep it "always on top"

UPDATED WIKI: Home

Lck — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 23:01:29 GMT

Windows Vista Controls for .NET 2.0 is a project started by Marco Minerva on January 30th, 2007.

This project aims to create a Windows Control Library that provides controls reproducing the appearance of Windows Vista objects, like buttons and links with shield icon, textboxes with cue banner, etc.

System requirements

Visual C# 2008 Express Edition or Visual Studio 2008
A system running Windows Vista operating system

Screenshots

The demo applications shows off some of the native Vista controls and the Glass sheet effect.

An example of a rather complex Task Dialog. The library includes a complete implementation of the Task dialog API, including task dialog navigation, events and animation.

For more information about the new controls that are available in Windows Vista, take a look at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511456.aspx

Documentation and Samples

The complete documentation is currently work in progress.
Documentation
Samples

Applications using the library

OnTopReplica, utility that allows you to clone a window and keep it "always on top"

UPDATED WIKI: Home

Lck — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 23:00:05 GMT

System requirements

Visual C# 2008 Express Edition or Visual Studio 2008
A system running Windows Vista operating system

Screenshots

The demo applications shows off some of the native Vista controls and the Glass sheet effect.

An example of a rather complex Task Dialog. The library includes a complete implementation of the Task dialog API, including task dialog navigation, events and animation.

For more information about the new controls that are available in Windows Vista, take a look at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511456.aspx

Documentation and Samples

The complete documentation is currently work in progress.
Documentation
Samples

Applications using the library

OnTopReplica, utility that allows you to clone a window and keep it "always on top"

Cannot resolve link: [image:http://www.dotnetkicks.com/Services/Images/KickItImageGenerator.ashx?url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.codeplex.com%2fvistacontrols&bgcolor=009900]

UPDATED WIKI: Task Dialogs

Lck — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 22:34:25 GMT

Task Dialogs

Task Dialogs are Windows Vista's alternative to the classic Message Box (System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox on .NET) which has been used from times immemorial to notify the users about errors, status changes and to prompt for action. Task Dialogs have a much better looking interface and have many more interaction possibilities (customizable text buttons, radio buttons, progress bars, and so on...).

To get a full guide about Task Dialogs, refer to these MSDN pages:

Task Dialog Overview
Guidelines for using Task Dialogs in

TaskDialog static methods

The TaskDialog class has been designed to be used exactly as you used MessageBox on standard WinForms applications. The class exposes a set of common static methods which allow you to define highly customizable dialogs without instancing any object and making a single function call:

Basic Task Dialogs

The simplest TaskDialog call takes a single parameter:

TaskDialog.Show("Instruction");

You can further customize your dialog with a custom title and verbose instructions:

TaskDialog.Show("Instruction", "My Task Dialog", "Verbose instructions.");

The buttons that appear on the task dialog can be customized by providing one or more elements of the TaskDialogButton enumeration. Valid values are:

OK
Cancel
Yes
No
Close
Retry

TaskDialog.Show("Instruction", "My Task Dialog", "Verbose instructions.", TaskDialogButton.Retry | TaskDialogButton.Cancel);

Like with MessageBox, you may customize the dialog's icon. All new Vista icons are included: from the classic Information and Warning, to the new Security warnings.

TaskDialog.Show("Instruction", "My Task Dialog", "Verbose instructions.", TaskDialogButton.Retry | TaskDialogButton.Cancel, TaskDialogIcon.Information);

Information:
Stop
Warning
SecurityError:
SecurityWarning:
SecuritySuccess:
SecurityShield
SecurityShieldGray
SecurityShieldBlue

Results

The static TaskDialog methods return results as a value of the Result enumeration. It may assume the following values (some values have no corresponding TaskDialogButton value and cannot be used via static method):

None
OK
Cancel
Abort
Retry
Ignore
Yes
No
Close

TaskDialog instances

To really exploit the power of Vista's Task Dialog library, you'll need to instance a TaskDialog object and customize it.

Creating an instance

The interface for creating an instance is identical to that of the static methods: you can define an instruction, a title, some content, icons and common buttons.

TaskDialog dlg = new TaskDialog("Instruction", "Title", "Verbose instruction.", TaskDialogButton.Cancel, TaskDialogIcon.Warning);
Results results = dlg.Show(this.Handle);
 
if(results.CommonButton == Result.Cancel)
	//...
else
	//...

But using this slightly less practical approach, you can define many other parameters and access the complete results set of the dialog.

Setting Properties

AllowDialogCancellation

Setting this property to true (default) allows the used to cancel the dialog even if no Cancel button has been added by you (by clicking ESC or the red X). If you set it to false, you prevent the user from canceling the dialog and force him/her to select one of the buttons.

Please note that if a button with the Cancel value is present, this property will be ignored and the user will be allowed to close the dialog as usual.

A dialog with this property set to true and without Cancel buttons:

CanBeMinimized

If this property is true and the Task dialog is shown wihtout a parent handle, the user may minimize the dialog. Notice that the task dialog will be modal nonetheless.

Expanded information

Task Dialogs can display more information on request by the user. This is done by clicking on a special control which will trigger the vertical expansion of the dialog and make place for more text (which can be initially hidden or shown).

dlg.ExpandedInformation = "Expanded information.";
dlg.CollapsedControlText = "Collapsed control text";
dlg.ExpandedControlText = "Expanded control text";
dlg.IsExpanded = false;
dlg.ShowExpandedInfoInFooter = false;

ExpandedInformation is the actual text which will be displayed in the expanding section. CollapsedControlText and ExpandedControlText are optional and set the text of the button on the dialog bottom. The IsExpanded property (default false) allows you to define whether the expanded text is initially visible or not.
ShowExpandedInfoInFooter sets whether you'd like the information displayed just below the dialog's content or on the bottom of the dialog.

Not expanded:

Expanded:

Expanded on footer:

Common properties

The same information that can be set through the constructor can be set individually through properties:

dlg.Title = "Title";
dlg.Instruction = "Instruction";
dlg.Content = "Content.";
dlg.CommonButtons = TaskDialogButton.OK | TaskDialogButton.Cancel; ;
dlg.CommonIcon = TaskDialogIcon.Information;

Custom icon

Instead of using one of the common icons, you can easily set a custom icon to be displayed by your task dialog.

dlg.CustomIcon = new Icon("myicon.ico");

The icon can be any instance of System.Drawing.Icon.

Footer

The footer of a Task dialog is a gray area below the buttons that can optionally contain some information and a common (or a custom) icon. Custom icons can simply be provided as a standard System.Drawing.Icon instance.

dlg.Footer = "Footer info.";
dlg.FooterCommonIcon = TaskDialogIcon.SecurityError;
dlg.FooterCustomIcon = new Icon("myicon.ico");

Verification checkbox

Task dialog's allow you to add a single "verification" checkbox with custom text and set its state.

dlg.VerificationText = "Verification";
dlg.IsVerificationChecked = true;

Custom buttons

As shown before, you can freely use and mix the common buttons provided by the Task dialog class. One of the most powerful aspects of the library though, is given by the possibility of defining your own buttons with custom return codes and custom text. These custom buttons can be set very easily using the CustomButtons property:

dlg.CustomButtons = new CustomButton[] {
	new CustomButton(100, "Button 100"),
	new CustomButton(Result.Cancel, "Custom cancel")
};

As you can see, custom buttons are created by instancing objects from the CustomButton class. Each button can have an own text string and a return code (which may be a common code from the Result enumeration or a free integer value - just notice that values less than 9 are reserved by common buttons and may cause collisions).

Also note that you can mix common and custom buttons, like in the following task dialog:

Command links

Task dialogs can obviously use Vista's brand new "Command Link" buttons instead of the more classic styled buttons on the bottom of the window.

dlg.CustomButtons = new CustomButton[] {
	new CustomButton(100, "Button 1"),
	new CustomButton(Result.Cancel, "Button 2\nDescription note.")
};
 
dlg.UseCommandLinks = true;

Note that when using command links you must define at least one custom button or the Show() call will raise an exception. You can also define a description note for the command link by inserting a '\n' newline code in the button text.

Radio buttons

Task dialogs not only allow you to define custom buttons, you may also add a set of radio buttons to your dialog. This is done by setting the RadioButtons property with an array of CustomButton instances.

dlg.RadioButtons = new CustomButton[] {
	new CustomButton(1, "Radio button 1"),
	new CustomButton(2, "Radio button 2"),
	new CustomButton(3, "Radio button 3")
};
dlg.EnabledRadioButton = 2;
dlg.NoDefaultRadioButton = false;

EnabledRadioButton sets the ID of the radio button that will be selected automatically when the dialog is opened. If you do not provide any default enabled radio button, Windows will automatically select the first one of the list. You can override this behavour by setting NoDefaultRadioButton to true.

IsShowing

IsShowing is a read-only property that returns true if the dialog is currently showing and false otherwise. This can be useful if you define event handlers for your task dialog.

PositionRelativeToWindow

By default, task dialogs are centered on the screen on which they are displayed. If you set this property to true, the dialog will be placed centered on its parent window (you must supply a handle to the parent window in the Show() call).

Progress bars

Task dialogs can optionally contain a progress bar indicating the progress of an action (check out the section of this page about events and ticks to find out how to update the progress bar).

dlg.ShowProgressBar = true;
dlg.ProgressBarState = VistaControls.ProgressBar.States.Paused;
dlg.ProgressBarMinRange = 0;
dlg.ProgressBarMaxRange = 100;
dlg.ProgressBarPosition = 50;
dlg.ShowMarqueeProgressBar = true;

The property ProgressBarState sets the color and the state of the progress bar (normal, paused/yellow and error/red), MaxRange, MinRange and Position set the numeric range of the progress bar and the current position. ShowMarqueeProgressBar enables a particular state of the progress bar that expresses activity but does not indicate what proportion of the task is complete.

Events and Timing

ButtonClick

This event is raised as soon as the user clicks on any button of the dialog. The EventArgs class contains the ID of the button and a bool value that allows you to prevent the dialog from closing automatically after the click.

Construction and destruction events

Task dialogs raise two events: Constructed, which is sent first, and Created which is sent just before the dialog is shown.

After being destroyed, the Destroyed event is raised and means that the handle of the dialog isn't valid anymore.

Expanding

This event is raised just before the dialog is expanded or collapsed. The EventArgs class contains a bool value indicating whether the dialog is switching to the expanded state or not.

Help

Is raised when the user requests help (for instance with the F1 key).

Hyperlinks

In task dialogs you can add a hyperlink to the content, which will be displayed underlined and in blue color. When the user clicks one of these hyperlinks, the HyperlinkClick event is raised, containing the clicked URL. In order to enable this feature, you must set the EnableHyperlinks property to true:

dlg.EnableHyperlinks = true;
dlg.Content = "This is content. This is a <a href=\"link\">hyperlink</a>.";

In this case, a click on "hyperlink" will raise the HyperlinkClick event with the Url property set to "link".

Navigating

Is raised when the dialog navigates from one page to another. See Navigation section.

RadioButtonClick

Is similar to the ButtonClick, except that since the dialog will not automatically close after the click, the PreventClosing property of the EventArgs class has no effect.

Ticking

In order to allow you to update the dialog's contents in real-time (for instance progress bars), task dialogs provide a "ticking" interface which will call a delegate defined by you at 200ms intervals. In order to enable this callback, you must set the EnableCallbackTimer property to true.

The Tick event will be raised periodically with an EventArgs class containing the current count of "ticks" which have passed (in milliseconds) and an optional ResetCount property that, if set to true, will reset the count on the next call.

VerificationClick

Is raised when the user clicks on the verification checkbox. The EventArgs class tells whether the checkbox is now checked or not.

Calling methods on buttons

The task dialog interface provides several different ways to change the appearance and behavior of buttons. The following methods give you additional ways to change how your dialog looks and operates.

EnableButton

Takes the ID of the button you want to change and a bool that allows you to disable (or enable) the button.

EnableRadioButton

Takes the ID of the radio button and a bool that allows you to disable (or enable) the button.

SetShieldButton

Takes the ID of the button and a bool indicating whether to add or remove the UAC shield icon. This works for common buttons, custom buttons and command links, but not for radio buttons.

Click simulation

The methods SimulateButtonClick(), SimulateRadioButtonClick() and SimulateVerificationClick() allow you to inject virtual clicks on any button of the dialog at runtime. This can be used to change the state when reacting to events.

Navigation

One of the most complex aspects of Task dialogs, is that you can "navigate" from one to another. The Windows Vista Controls implementation simplifies everything to a single method call:

TaskDialog firstDialog; //instance has been created and is currently showing
 
TaskDialog secondDialog = new TaskDialog("New Task Dialog");
 
firstDialog.Navigate(secondDialog);

This will cause the first dialog to fade out, transform into the second dialog and then fade in again. You don't have to call Show() again on the second dialog and must not keep its reference: just keep the original task dialog reference (firstDialog in the sample above). All delegates registered on the dialog's events will be kept and be called correctly.

Fallback for previous Windows versions

The Windows Vista Controls library does not currently provide an automatic fallback for non-Vista versions of Windows, eventhough this may be implemented in future versions. You should always provide an alternative dialog to task dialogs and check if you can call the native version using the VistaControls.OSSupport class provided by the library.

UPDATED WIKI: Task Dialogs

Lck — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 22:02:17 GMT

Task Dialogs

Task Dialog Overview
Guidelines for using Task Dialogs in

TaskDialog static methods

Basic Task Dialogs

The simplest TaskDialog call takes a single parameter:

TaskDialog.Show("Instruction");

You can further customize your dialog with a custom title and verbose instructions:

TaskDialog.Show("Instruction", "My Task Dialog", "Verbose instructions.");

The buttons that appear on the task dialog can be customized by providing one or more elements of the TaskDialogButton enumeration. Valid values are:

OK
Cancel
Yes
No
Close
Retry

TaskDialog.Show("Instruction", "My Task Dialog", "Verbose instructions.", TaskDialogButton.Retry | TaskDialogButton.Cancel);

Like with MessageBox, you may customize the dialog's icon. All new Vista icons are included: from the classic Information and Warning, to the new Security warnings.

TaskDialog.Show("Instruction", "My Task Dialog", "Verbose instructions.", TaskDialogButton.Retry | TaskDialogButton.Cancel, TaskDialogIcon.Information);

Information:
Stop
Warning
SecurityError:
SecurityWarning:
SecuritySuccess:
SecurityShield
SecurityShieldGray
SecurityShieldBlue

Results

None
OK
Cancel
Abort
Retry
Ignore
Yes
No
Close

TaskDialog instances

To really exploit the power of Vista's Task Dialog library, you'll need to instance a TaskDialog object and customize it.

Creating an instance

The interface for creating an instance is identical to that of the static methods: you can define an instruction, a title, some content, icons and common buttons.

TaskDialog dlg = new TaskDialog("Instruction", "Title", "Verbose instruction.", TaskDialogButton.Cancel, TaskDialogIcon.Warning);
Results results = dlg.Show(this.Handle);
 
if(results.CommonButton == Result.Cancel)
	//...
else
	//...

But using this slightly less practical approach, you can define many other parameters and access the complete results set of the dialog.

Setting Properties

AllowDialogCancellation

CanBeMinimized

If this property is true and the Task dialog is shown wihtout a parent handle, the user may minimize the dialog. Notice that the task dialog will be modal nonetheless.

Expanded information

dlg.ExpandedInformation = "Expanded information.";
dlg.CollapsedControlText = "Collapsed control text";
dlg.ExpandedControlText = "Expanded control text";
dlg.IsExpanded = false;
dlg.ShowExpandedInfoInFooter = false;

Common properties

The same information that can be set through the constructor can be set individually through properties:

dlg.Title = "Title";
dlg.Instruction = "Instruction";
dlg.Content = "Content.";
dlg.CommonButtons = TaskDialogButton.OK | TaskDialogButton.Cancel; ;
dlg.CommonIcon = TaskDialogIcon.Information;

Custom icon

Instead of using one of the common icons, you can easily set a custom icon to be displayed by your task dialog.

dlg.CustomIcon = new Icon("myicon.ico");

The icon can be any instance of System.Drawing.Icon.

Footer

dlg.Footer = "Footer info.";
dlg.FooterCommonIcon = TaskDialogIcon.SecurityError;
dlg.FooterCustomIcon = new Icon("myicon.ico");

Verification checkbox

Task dialog's allow you to add a single "verification" checkbox with custom text and set its state.

dlg.VerificationText = "Verification";
dlg.IsVerificationChecked = true;

Custom buttons

dlg.CustomButtons = new CustomButton[] {
	new CustomButton(100, "Button 100"),
	new CustomButton(Result.Cancel, "Custom cancel")
};

Command links

Task dialogs can obviously use Vista's brand new "Command Link" buttons instead of the more classic styled buttons on the bottom of the window.

dlg.CustomButtons = new CustomButton[] {
	new CustomButton(100, "Button 1"),
	new CustomButton(Result.Cancel, "Button 2\nDescription note.")
};
 
dlg.UseCommandLinks = true;

Radio buttons

dlg.RadioButtons = new CustomButton[] {
	new CustomButton(1, "Radio button 1"),
	new CustomButton(2, "Radio button 2"),
	new CustomButton(3, "Radio button 3")
};
dlg.EnabledRadioButton = 2;
dlg.NoDefaultRadioButton = false;

IsShowing

IsShowing is a read-only property that returns true if the dialog is currently showing and false otherwise. This can be useful if you define event handlers for your task dialog.

PositionRelativeToWindow

Progress bars

Task dialogs can optionally contain a progress bar indicating the progress of an action (check out the section of this page about events and ticks to find out how to update the progress bar).

dlg.ShowProgressBar = true;
dlg.ProgressBarState = VistaControls.ProgressBar.States.Paused;
dlg.ProgressBarMinRange = 0;
dlg.ProgressBarMaxRange = 100;
dlg.ProgressBarPosition = 50;
dlg.ShowMarqueeProgressBar = true;

Events and Timing

ButtonClick

Construction and destruction events

Expanding

This event is raised just before the dialog is expanded or collapsed. The EventArgs class contains a bool value indicating whether the dialog is switching to the expanded state or not.

Help

Is raised when the user requests help (for instance with the F1 key).

Hyperlinks

dlg.EnableHyperlinks = true;
dlg.Content = "This is content. This is a <a href=\"link\">hyperlink</a>.";

In this case, a click on "hyperlink" will raise the HyperlinkClick event with the Url property set to "link".

Navigating

Is raised when the dialog navigates from one page to another. See Navigation section.

RadioButtonClick

Is similar to the ButtonClick, except that since the dialog will not automatically close after the click, the PreventClosing property of the EventArgs class has no effect.

Ticking

In order to allow you to update the dialog's contents in real-time (for instance progress bars), task dialogs provide a "ticking" interface which will call a delegate defined by you at 200ms intervals. In order to enable this callback, you must set the EnableCallbackTimer property to true.

The Tick event will be raised periodically with an EventArgs class containing the current count of "ticks" which have passed and an optional ResetCount property that, if set to true, will reset the count on the next call.

VerificationClick

Is raised when the user clicks on the verification checkbox. The EventArgs class tells whether the checkbox is now checked or not.

UPDATED WIKI: Task Dialogs

Lck — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 19:20:52 GMT

Task Dialogs

Task Dialog Overview
Guidelines for using Task Dialogs in

TaskDialog static methods

Basic Task Dialogs

The simplest TaskDialog call takes a single parameter:

TaskDialog.Show("Instruction");

You can further customize your dialog with a custom title and verbose instructions:

TaskDialog.Show("Instruction", "My Task Dialog", "Verbose instructions.");

The buttons that appear on the task dialog can be customized by providing one or more elements of the TaskDialogButton enumeration. Valid values are:

OK
Cancel
Yes
No
Close
Retry

TaskDialog.Show("Instruction", "My Task Dialog", "Verbose instructions.", TaskDialogButton.Retry | TaskDialogButton.Cancel);

Like with MessageBox, you may customize the dialog's icon. All new Vista icons are included: from the classic Information and Warning, to the new Security warnings.

TaskDialog.Show("Instruction", "My Task Dialog", "Verbose instructions.", TaskDialogButton.Retry | TaskDialogButton.Cancel, TaskDialogIcon.Information);

Information:
Stop
Warning
SecurityError:
SecurityWarning:
SecuritySuccess:
SecurityShield
SecurityShieldGray
SecurityShieldBlue

Results

None
OK
Cancel
Abort
Retry
Ignore
Yes
No
Close

TaskDialog instances

To really exploit the power of Vista's Task Dialog library, you'll need to instance a TaskDialog object and customize it.

Creating an instance

The interface for creating an instance is identical to that of the static methods: you can define an instruction, a title, some content, icons and common buttons.

TaskDialog dlg = new TaskDialog("Instruction", "Title", "Verbose instruction.", TaskDialogButton.Cancel, TaskDialogIcon.Warning);
Results results = dlg.Show(this.Handle);
 
if(results.CommonButton == Result.Cancel)
	//...
else
	//...

But using this slightly less practical approach, you can define many other parameters and access the complete results set of the dialog.

Setting Properties

AllowDialogCancellation

CanBeMinimized

If this property is true and the Task dialog is shown wihtout a parent handle, the user may minimize the dialog. Notice that the task dialog will be modal nonetheless.

Expanded information

dlg.ExpandedInformation = "Expanded information.";
dlg.CollapsedControlText = "Collapsed control text";
dlg.ExpandedControlText = "Expanded control text";
dlg.IsExpanded = false;
dlg.ShowExpandedInfoInFooter = false;

Common properties

The same information that can be set through the constructor can be set individually through properties:

dlg.Title = "Title";
dlg.Instruction = "Instruction";
dlg.Content = "Content.";
dlg.CommonButtons = TaskDialogButton.OK | TaskDialogButton.Cancel; ;
dlg.CommonIcon = TaskDialogIcon.Information;

Custom icon

Instead of using one of the common icons, you can easily set a custom icon to be displayed by your task dialog.

dlg.CustomIcon = new Icon("myicon.ico");

The icon can be any instance of System.Drawing.Icon.

Footer

dlg.Footer = "Footer info.";
dlg.FooterCommonIcon = TaskDialogIcon.SecurityError;
dlg.FooterCustomIcon = new Icon("myicon.ico");

Verification checkbox

Task dialog's allow you to add a single "verification" checkbox with custom text and set its state.

dlg.VerificationText = "Verification";
dlg.IsVerificationChecked = true;

Custom buttons

dlg.CustomButtons = new CustomButton[] {
	new CustomButton(100, "Button 100"),
	new CustomButton(Result.Cancel, "Custom cancel")
};

Command links

Task dialogs can obviously use Vista's brand new "Command Link" buttons instead of the more classic styled buttons on the bottom of the window.

dlg.CustomButtons = new CustomButton[] {
	new CustomButton(100, "Button 1"),
	new CustomButton(Result.Cancel, "Button 2\nDescription note.")
};
 
dlg.UseCommandLinks = true;

Radio buttons

dlg.RadioButtons = new CustomButton[] {
	new CustomButton(1, "Radio button 1"),
	new CustomButton(2, "Radio button 2"),
	new CustomButton(3, "Radio button 3")
};
dlg.EnabledRadioButton = 2;
dlg.NoDefaultRadioButton = false;

UPDATED WIKI: Task Dialogs

Lck — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 18:29:19 GMT

Task Dialogs

Task Dialog Overview
Guidelines for using Task Dialogs in

TaskDialog static methods

Basic Task Dialogs

The simplest TaskDialog call takes a single parameter:

TaskDialog.Show("Instruction");

You can further customize your dialog with a custom title and verbose instructions:

TaskDialog.Show("Instruction", "My Task Dialog", "Verbose instructions.");

The buttons that appear on the task dialog can be customized by providing one or more elements of the TaskDialogButton enumeration. Valid values are:

OK
Cancel
Yes
No
Close
Retry

TaskDialog.Show("Instruction", "My Task Dialog", "Verbose instructions.", TaskDialogButton.Retry | TaskDialogButton.Cancel);

Like with MessageBox, you may customize the dialog's icon. All new Vista icons are included: from the classic Information and Warning, to the new Security warnings.

TaskDialog.Show("Instruction", "My Task Dialog", "Verbose instructions.", TaskDialogButton.Retry | TaskDialogButton.Cancel, TaskDialogIcon.Information);

Information:
Stop
Warning
SecurityError:
SecurityWarning:
SecuritySuccess:
SecurityShield
SecurityShieldGray
SecurityShieldBlue

Results

None
OK
Cancel
Abort
Retry
Ignore
Yes
No
Close

TaskDialog instances

To really exploit the power of Vista's Task Dialog library, you'll need to instance a TaskDialog object and customize it.

Creating an instance

The interface for creating an instance is identical to that of the static methods: you can define an instruction, a title, some content, icons and common buttons.

TaskDialog dlg = new TaskDialog("Instruction", "Title", "Verbose instruction.", TaskDialogButton.Cancel, TaskDialogIcon.Warning);
Results results = dlg.Show(this.Handle);
 
if(results.CommonButton == Result.Cancel)
	//...
else
	//...

But using this slightly less practical approach, you can define many other parameters and access the complete results set of the dialog.

Setting Properties

AllowDialogCancellation

CanBeMinimized

If this property is true and the Task dialog is shown wihtout a parent handle, the user may minimize the dialog. Notice that the task dialog will be modal nonetheless.

Expanded information

dlg.ExpandedInformation = "Expanded information.";
dlg.CollapsedControlText = "Collapsed control text";
dlg.ExpandedControlText = "Expanded control text";
dlg.IsExpanded = false;

Common properties

UPDATED WIKI: Task Dialogs

Lck — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 18:02:42 GMT

Task Dialogs

Task Dialog Overview
Guidelines for using Task Dialogs in

TaskDialog static methods

Basic Task Dialogs

The simplest TaskDialog call takes a single parameter:

TaskDialog.Show("Instruction");

You can further customize your dialog with a custom title and verbose instructions:

TaskDialog.Show("Instruction", "My Task Dialog", "Verbose instructions.");

The buttons that appear on the task dialog can be customized by providing one or more elements of the TaskDialogButton enumeration. Valid values are:

OK
Cancel
Yes
No
Close
Retry

TaskDialog.Show("Instruction", "My Task Dialog", "Verbose instructions.", TaskDialogButton.Retry | TaskDialogButton.Cancel);

Like with MessageBox, you may customize the dialog's icon. All new Vista icons are included: from the classic Information and Warning, to the new Security warnings.

TaskDialog.Show("Instruction", "My Task Dialog", "Verbose instructions.", TaskDialogButton.Retry | TaskDialogButton.Cancel, TaskDialogIcon.Information);

Information:
Stop
Warning
SecurityError:
SecurityWarning:
SecuritySuccess:
SecurityShield
SecurityShieldGray
SecurityShieldBlue

Results

None
OK
Cancel
Abort
Retry
Ignore
Yes
No
Close

TaskDialog instances

To really exploit the power of Vista's Task Dialog library, you'll need to instance a TaskDialog object and customize it.

UPDATED WIKI: Task Dialogs

Lck — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 17:59:00 GMT

Task Dialogs

Task Dialogs are Windows Vista's alternative to the classic Message Box (System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox on .NET) which has been used from times immemorial to notify the users about errors, status changes and to promt for action. Task Dialogs have a much better looking interface and have many more interaction possibilities (customizable text buttons, radio buttons, progress bars, and so on...).

To get a full guide about Task Dialogs, refer to these MSDN pages:

Task Dialog Overview
Guidelines for using Task Dialogs in

TaskDialog static methods

Basic Task Dialogs

The simplest TaskDialog call takes a single parameter:

TaskDialog.Show("Instruction");

Cannot resolve link: [image:taskdialog1.png]

You can further customize your dialog with a custom title and verbose instructions:

TaskDialog.Show("Instruction", "My Task Dialog", "Verbose instructions.");

Cannot resolve link: [image:taskdialog2.png]

The buttons that appear on the task dialog can be customized by providing one or more elements of the TaskDialogButton enumeration. Valid values are:

OK
Cancel
Yes
No
Close
Retry

TaskDialog.Show("Instruction", "My Task Dialog", "Verbose instructions.", TaskDialogButton.Retry | TaskDialogButton.Cancel);

Cannot resolve link: [image:taskdialog3.png]

Like with MessageBox, you may customize the dialog's icon. All new Vista icons are included: from the classic Information and Warning, to the new Security warnings.

TaskDialog.Show("Instruction", "My Task Dialog", "Verbose instructions.", TaskDialogButton.Retry | TaskDialogButton.Cancel, TaskDialogIcon.Information);

Information: Cannot resolve link: [image:taskdialog4.png]
Stop
Warning
SecurityError: Cannot resolve link: [image:taskdialog5.png]
SecurityWarning: Cannot resolve link: [image:taskdialog6.png]
SecuritySuccess: Cannot resolve link: [image:taskdialog7.png]
SecurityShield
SecurityShieldGray
SecurityShieldBlue

Results

None
OK
Cancel
Abort
Retry
Ignore
Yes
No
Close

TaskDialog instances

To really exploit the power of Vista's Task Dialog library, you'll need to instance a TaskDialog object and customize it.

UPDATED WIKI: Adding Vista Controls to a Visual Studio 2008 project

Lck — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 15:48:33 GMT

Adding Vista Controls to a Visual Studio 2008 project

Add the library reference

In order to start using the library, you simply must download the latest binary release, copy the files in a folder of your choice and then add a reference to it in the Solution Explorer panel of Visual Studio 2008:

The library will be listed as VistaControls in your project's references:

Remember that all classes are included in the VistaControls namespace.

Adding the controls to the WinForms designer toolbox

You may also add the Windows Vista Controls to a custom toolbox and use them in the WinForms designer of Visual Studio. To do so, right click on the toolbox, select "Add Tab" and assign a significant name to new tab (for instance "Vista Controls"). Then right click on the tab and select "Choose Items...". This will display a dialog that allows you to select which controls should be added to the tab: browse to the Windows Vista Controls DLL, open it and click OK.

Now you can simply drag & drop the controls to the WinForm designer and start using them. Some functionalities of the library are not available as drag & drop controls and must be called from your code.

UPDATED WIKI: Adding Vista Controls to a Visual Studio 2008 project

Lck — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 15:47:31 GMT

Adding Vista Controls to a Visual Studio 2008 project

Add the library reference

In order to start using the library, you simply must download the latest binary release, copy the files in a folder of your choice and then add a reference to it in the Solution Explorer panel of Visual Studio 2008:

img

The library will be listed as VistaControls in your project's references:

img

Remember that all classes are included in the VistaControls namespace.

Adding the controls to the WinForms designer toolbox

You may also add the Windows Vista Controls to a custom toolbox and use them in the WinForms designer of Visual Studio. To do so, right click on the toolbox, select "Add Tab" and assign a significant name to new tab (for instance "Vista Controls"). Then right click on the tab and select "Choose Items...". This will display a dialog that allows you to select which controls should be added to the tab: browse to the Windows Vista Controls DLL, open it and click OK.

img

Now you can simply drag & drop the controls to the WinForm designer and start using them. Some functionalities of the library are not available as drag & drop controls and must be called from your code.

UPDATED WIKI: Glass on WinForms

Lck — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 13:52:15 GMT

Glass on WinForms

Enabling the "glass sheet" effect with WinForms requires two simple steps:

Set the Form background to Black
Call EnableGlassSheet (for instance in the OnLoad event).

protected override void OnLoad(EventArgs e) {
	base.OnLoad(e);
 
	VistaControls.DWM.DWMManager.EnableGlassSheet(this);
}

This will create a completely transparent glass frame. The problem is, WinForms control are not alpha-blended and won't render correctly on the glass frame (all black elements will be completely transparent).

Even if you can draw shapes and text on the frame correctly using GDI+, in order to use the controls you'll need to define a non-glassy area of the frame on which to place all controls. You'll also need to draw the black background only on the areas which will in fact be transparent:

protected override void OnLoad(EventArgs e) {
	base.OnLoad(e);
 
	VistaControls.DWM.DWMManager.EnableGlassFrame(this, new VistaControls.DWM.Margins(30));
}
 
protected override void OnPaint(PaintEventArgs e) {
	base.OnPaint(e);
 
	e.Graphics.FillRectangles(Brushes.Black, new Rectangle[] {
		new Rectangle(0, 0, this.ClientSize.Width, 30),
		new Rectangle(this.ClientSize.Width - 30, 0, 30, this.ClientSize.Height),
		new Rectangle(0, this.ClientSize.Height - 30, this.ClientSize.Width, 30),
		new Rectangle(0, 0, 30, this.ClientSize.Height)
	});
}

The following code creates a 30 pixel glass border around the center of the window, which will look like a normal WinForms window and can contain normal controls as usual. Remember to set the Form's background to the default "Control" color in the Visual Studio Form designer. This is the result:

Remember that the Windows Vista Controls library includes several helper classes that will help you taking over the most trivial tasks of making a glass Form (like the black background painting and moving the form when the user clicks on any glass part).

UPDATED WIKI: Glass on WinForms

Lck — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 13:48:43 GMT

Glass on WinForms

Enabling the "glass sheet" effect with WinForms requires two simple steps:

Set the Form background to Black
Call EnableGlassSheet (for instance in the OnLoad event).

protected override void OnLoad(EventArgs e) {
	base.OnLoad(e);
 
	VistaControls.DWM.DWMManager.EnableGlassSheet(this);
}

This will create a completely transparent glass frame. The problem is, WinForms control are not alpha-blended and won't render correctly on the glass frame (all black elements will be completely transparent).

img

Even if you can draw shapes and text on the frame correctly using GDI+, in order to use the controls you'll need to define a non-glassy area of the frame on which to place all controls. You'll also need to draw the black background only on the areas which will in fact be transparent:

protected override void OnLoad(EventArgs e) {
	base.OnLoad(e);
 
	VistaControls.DWM.DWMManager.EnableGlassFrame(this, new VistaControls.DWM.Margins(30));
}
 
protected override void OnPaint(PaintEventArgs e) {
	base.OnPaint(e);
 
	e.Graphics.FillRectangles(Brushes.Black, new Rectangle[] {
		new Rectangle(0, 0, this.ClientSize.Width, 30),
		new Rectangle(this.ClientSize.Width - 30, 0, 30, this.ClientSize.Height),
		new Rectangle(0, this.ClientSize.Height - 30, this.ClientSize.Width, 30),
		new Rectangle(0, 0, 30, this.ClientSize.Height)
	});
}

The following code creates a 30 pixel glass border around the center of the window, which will look like a normal WinForms window and can contain normal controls as usual. Remember to set the Form's background to the default "Control" color in the Visual Studio Form designer. This is the result:

img

Remember that the Windows Vista Controls library includes several helper classes that will help you taking over the most trivial tasks of making a glass Form (like the black background painting and moving the form when the user clicks on any glass part).

UPDATED WIKI: Glass on WPF

Lck — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 12:37:55 GMT

Glass on WPF

Complete sample available on MSDN: Extend Glass Frame into a WPF application

Enabling glass and transparency

First of all, you must tell the composition renderer to use a black background for your application (same goes for WinForms) and then enable the glass border. Since the window will be drawn on top of your black composition background, you'll also need to tell WPF to use a transparent background (otherwise, the white background of the window will simply be rendered on top of the glass). We also define an event handler for the Loaded event:

<Window x:Class="WpfApplication1.Window1"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    Title="Window1" Height="300" Width="300" Loaded="Window_Loaded" Background="Transparent">

The event handler creates a WindowInteropHelper in order to get the window's Handle. This is needed to set the composition target's background to black and to enable the "glass sheet" effect on the whole window.

private void Window_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) {
	IntPtr hwnd = new WindowInteropHelper(this).Handle;
 
	//Set backgroung to black
	HwndSource source = HwndSource.FromHwnd(hwnd);
	source.CompositionTarget.BackgroundColor = Color.FromArgb(0, 0, 0, 0);
 
	//Set glass
	VistaControls.DWM.DWMManager.EnableGlassSheet(hwnd);
}

Since WPF controls are rendered with alpha blending enabled (whereas WinForms controls are not), you can put controls on glass areas or fade the opacity of certain elements:

Partial glass effect

If you prefer the glass not to be over the whole window and to extend on only one side (or two), you can simply change the call to the Windows Vista Controls library:

//Set glass
VistaControls.DWM.DWMManager.EnableGlassFrame(hwnd, new VistaControls.DWM.Margins(50, 0, 0, 0));

The result is this:

The problem is, we told WPF to draw a transparent background and that's what is being done: the window has no background and the only "painted" area is the actual extended glass border. In order to draw the background correctly, you'll need to draw it manually on the areas which are not transparent:

<Grid>
    <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
        <ColumnDefinition Width="50" />
        <ColumnDefinition Width="*" />
    </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
    
    <Grid Grid.Column="1">
        <Rectangle Fill="{x:Static SystemColors.WindowBrush}" />
        
        <!-- CONTENT OF YOUR WINDOW -->
    </Grid>
</Grid>

In this case we simply define a Grid with columns and rows matching the structure of the window's glass and then draw a rectangle on the non-glassy area (using the default WindowBrush as color). This is the result:

UPDATED WIKI: Glass on WPF

Lck — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 12:36:20 GMT

Glass on WPF

Complete sample available on MSDN: Extend Glass Frame into a WPF application

Enabling glass and transparency

<Window x:Class="WpfApplication1.Window1"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    Title="Window1" Height="300" Width="300" Loaded="Window_Loaded" Background="Transparent">

private void Window_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) {
	IntPtr hwnd = new WindowInteropHelper(this).Handle;
 
	//Set backgroung to black
	HwndSource source = HwndSource.FromHwnd(hwnd);
	source.CompositionTarget.BackgroundColor = Color.FromArgb(0, 0, 0, 0);
 
	//Set glass
	VistaControls.DWM.DWMManager.EnableGlassSheet(hwnd);
}

Since WPF controls are rendered with alpha blending enabled (whereas WinForms controls are not), you can put controls on glass areas or fade the opacity of certain elements:

img

Partial glass effect

If you prefer the glass not to be over the whole window and to extend on only one side (or two), you can simply change the call to the Windows Vista Controls library:

//Set glass
VistaControls.DWM.DWMManager.EnableGlassFrame(hwnd, new VistaControls.DWM.Margins(50, 0, 0, 0));

The result is this:

img

The problem is, we told WPF to draw a transparent background and that's what is being done: the window has no background and the only "painted" area is the actual extended glass border. In order to draw the background correctly, you'll need to draw it manually on the areas which are not transparent:

<Grid>
    <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
        <ColumnDefinition Width="50" />
        <ColumnDefinition Width="*" />
    </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
    
    <Grid Grid.Column="1">
        <Rectangle Fill="{x:Static SystemColors.WindowBrush}" />
        
        <!-- CONTENT OF YOUR WINDOW -->
    </Grid>
</Grid>

windowsformsaero Wiki & Documentation Rss Feed

Updated Wiki: Home

System requirements

Contents

Screenshots

Documentation and Samples

Applications using the library

Updated Wiki: Home

System requirements

Contents

Screenshots

Documentation and Samples

Applications using the library

Updated Wiki: Home

System requirements

Contents

Screenshots

Documentation and Samples

Applications using the library

UPDATED WIKI: V2_Preview

UPDATED WIKI: V2_Preview

UPDATED WIKI: Home

System requirements

Contents

Screenshots

Documentation and Samples

Applications using the library

UPDATED WIKI: Home

System requirements

Contents

Screenshots

Documentation and Samples

Applications using the library

UPDATED WIKI: Home

System requirements

Contents

Screenshots

Documentation and Samples

Applications using the library

UPDATED WIKI: Task Dialogs

Task Dialogs

TaskDialog static methods

Basic Task Dialogs

Results

TaskDialog instances

Creating an instance

Setting Properties

AllowDialogCancellation

CanBeMinimized

Expanded information

Common properties

Custom icon

Footer

Verification checkbox

Custom buttons

Command links

Radio buttons

IsShowing

PositionRelativeToWindow

Progress bars

Events and Timing

ButtonClick

Construction and destruction events

Expanding

Help

Hyperlinks

Navigating

RadioButtonClick

Ticking

VerificationClick

Calling methods on buttons

EnableButton

EnableRadioButton

SetShieldButton

Click simulation

Navigation

Fallback for previous Windows versions

UPDATED WIKI: Task Dialogs

Task Dialogs

TaskDialog static methods