Getting XP interface with VB6

August 25th, 2007 Noor Posted in Visual Baisc 6.0 |

Most of non-advanced programmers in VB6 have face this problem. The applications they develop look kind of “old school” when run on a XP machine. I too faced this problem until I found the answer!

So this is what you have to do:

step1: create a module (you can name it whatever you like)

step2: paste the code below in it.

Public Const ICC_LISTVIEW_CLASSES As Long = &H1 'listview, header Public Const ICC_TREEVIEW_CLASSES As Long = &H2 'treeview, tooltips Public Const ICC_BAR_CLASSES As Long = &H4 'toolbar, statusbar, trackbar, tooltips Public Const ICC_TAB_CLASSES As Long = &H8 'tab, tooltips Public Const ICC_UPDOWN_CLASS As Long = &H10 'updown Public Const ICC_PROGRESS_CLASS As Long = &H20 'progress Public Const ICC_HOTKEY_CLASS As Long = &H40 'hotkey Public Const ICC_ANIMATE_CLASS As Long = &H80 'animate Public Const ICC_WIN95_CLASSES As Long = &HFF 'everything else Public Const ICC_DATE_CLASSES As Long = &H100 'month picker, date picker, time picker, updown Public Const ICC_USEREX_CLASSES As Long = &H200 'comboex Public Const ICC_COOL_CLASSES As Long = &H400 'rebar (coolbar) control 'WIN32_IE >= 0x0400 Public Const ICC_INTERNET_CLASSES As Long = &H800 Public Const ICC_PAGESCROLLER_CLASS As Long = 1000 'page scroller Public Const ICC_NATIVEFNTCTL_CLASS As Long = 2000 'native font control 'WIN32_WINNT >= 0x501 Public Const ICC_STANDARD_CLASSES As Long = 4000 Public Const ICC_LINK_CLASS As Long = 8000 Public Declare Sub InitCommonControls Lib "comctl32" () Public Declare Function InitCommonControlsEx Lib "comctl32" _ (lpInitCtrls As tagINITCOMMONCONTROLSEX) As Boolean Public Type tagINITCOMMONCONTROLSEX ' icc dwSize As Long ' size of this structure dwICC As Long ' flags indicating which classes to be initialized. End Type Public Function InitComctl32(dwFlags As Long) As Boolean Dim icc As tagINITCOMMONCONTROLSEX On Error GoTo Err_OldVersion With icc .dwSize = Len(icc) .dwICC = dwFlags End With InitComctl32 = InitCommonControlsEx(icc) Exit Function Err_OldVersion: InitCommonControls End Function

Step 3: on each form you open call this function in form_intinitialize.

InitComctl32(ICC_LISTVIEW_CLASSES)

Example:

Private Sub Form_Initialize() Call InitComctl32(ICC_LISTVIEW_CLASSES) End Sub

(if you do not call the function then it will not show the xp style on that form)

step 4:

create a textfile and paste the following code in it:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?> <assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0"> <assemblyIdentity version="1.0.0.0" processorArchitecture="X86" name="Microsoft.VB6.VBnetStyles" type="win32" /> <description>VBnet Manifest for VB6 IDE</description> <dependency> <dependentAssembly> <assemblyIdentity type="win32" name="Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls" version="6.0.0.0" processorArchitecture="X86" publicKeyToken="6595b64144ccf1df" language="*" /> </dependentAssembly> </dependency> </assembly>

Step5: Rename the file as <yourexefilename>.exe.manifest and place it in the same folder where you place your .exe file

step6: This is to make you vb6 dev application to have the XP look. go to the directory where you have vb6.exe (if you have installed vb in c drive then it may be in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Basic\VB98). then make a textfile with and paste the code given in step 4 and then rename it as vb6.exe.manifiest

click on you vb6.exe and see the change.

Note: after doing the above the interface will change from theme to theme.