Add support for Windows Theme colors

[Matthew_Kelton]

LabVIEW still only gives access to Windows95 color pallette.  With XP, themes came into play and there are numerous other colors used by those themes.  Since NI doesn't provided system-like controls for their non-system standard controls, many of us attempt to make it "feel" like a system control.  Unfortunately, the standard system colors are in the themes (for example, the border color on the system numerics and strings).  I can figure out what the color is for the current theme, but if the user is using a different theme, the color doesn't automatically change.

[smercurio_fc]

What are you considering to be "non-system standard controls"? Also, how would this work for other operating systems?

[Matthew_Kelton]

Anything NI doesn't provide a system style control for - graphs being a big one, timestamps, etc.  I have sreated a graph which looks like a system control so it goes with everything else in the system controls pallette.  But my XY Graph only looks "right" in the standard XP theme.  If my user has a different them (I had a customer that used the classic theme), the control doesn't use the right colors.  If the user tweaks their theme, the colors don't update.

I am not familiar enough with other OS's to know if other OS's have a similar setup.  NI has made special considerations for specific OS's before.  Also, since the NI stance appears to have shifted from use the 3D controls to using the system controls, it would be nice if they either (a) provided "system" controls for all their controls that internally handle the themes, or (b) give us access to the theme colors for us to do it.

If they provided the "system" controls for everything, then they could handle the display differences for Windows/Mac/Linux as they must do for the other system controls.

[DanSome]

In Windows in general (not in LabView) I understand that it is possible to set a particular window to abide by an arbitrary theme, even if it is different from the one that the OS is displaying on the desktop. Some of my app's colors are screwed up when it is run under a non-standard desktop theme. Would be great if we could specify a theme to be used only by the application.

[Darren]

Any idea that has received less than 6 kudos within 6 years after posting will be automatically declined.