I was looking for an app that pre/views Visual Styles in a simple manner such that you may see in some of macs users' snapshots.
examples:
http://screenshots.haque.net/screenshots/v...enshot-3921.jpg
http://screenshots.haque.net/screenshots/v...enshot-2640.jpg
You know, Just a window that shows off all of the Visual Styles elements.
Thank you in advance.
I asked this question a long time ago but nobody responded, so I made one myself, but lost it recently as I forgot to back up my HD during a reinstall. It's very easy to make though with Visual Basic. If you know how to drag and drop controls you can make one of these applications in under 20 minutes.
Fine, if nobody is willing to make it I can attempt a remake. First of all, don't expect anything big as I'm not really skilled at this yet. Secondly, you'll need to apply the actual theme before looking at the preview, until I somehow manage to find out how to load them on-the-fly (similar to Styler's theme preview). Thirdly, I'll need some time...I have a midterm coming up. In the meantime, if someone else is willing to do it, by all means go ahead. :cool:
EDIT:
Did this in a few minutes...don't blame me if your computer blows up or something after using it.
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It's really simplistic. You can do it yourself too with Visual Basic.
Hey JesterMania my computer didn't blew up .
How in aquasoft's name you use it to see a preview ?
There was something like that in StarDock SkinStudio
JesterMania, Thank you so much for the reply and your file.
That will certainly do, pretty good stuff.
Thanks.
Oh great, I didn't think anyone would use it. Glad you like it. Forgot to mention, since I made it with VB.NET, you'll need the .NET Framework runtime. If you guys want me to modify it, I can also if you don't like the layout, etc.
@Laertis: You apply the theme normally and run my program, and it displays a collection of controls that should be skinned.
the value of vour little app is clear and functional, but a bit modification would pretify it...
but anyway really good, thanks
JesterMania i understood this one .
I thought that you can preview msstyles without having them applied first .
JesterMania i understood this one .I thought that you can preview msstyles without having them applied first .
That would be my next goal. 
But the thing is I can't find much information on Microsoft's uxtheme API at all. To make matters worse, most of the examples are in C++/C# and not VB which makes things more difficult as I have to understand the example, then rewrite the code. I wish I actually got a hold of some proper documentation, then I'd have a chance.
Apparently there is a function that allows the visual style of one window to be changed, but I can't get a handle on how it works yet. :confused:
You did not find any API that enumerates installed themes because there doesn't exist any.
Microsoft only provides APIs for applying the current theme, they simply forgot or intentionally left out such an API.
To achieve a full preview of non-applied themes, you've got to reverse engineer the theme files - load the MSSTYLES file as a resource DLL, parse the embedded INI files and draw the contained bitmaps.
Huge task, good luck.
Ahh well there you go. Good to know Herd and nicely done Microsoft.
This can be done REALLY easily with the ControlPaint class in .NET. 2.0 added a slew of methods to this class as well. I'm not exactly sure how to load a theme file just for that window, but it ought to help out none the less.
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