Stardock DirectSkin

Adding DirectSkin to you application

Basic usage of DirectSkin

Per-Window Skinning/Secondary Skinning

Redistribution of DirectSkin with your application

DirectSkin Method Reference

Benefits/Comparisons...WindowBlinds : DirectSkin
Adding DirectSkin to your application (For more information on the methods used, see the Method Reference.)

How to do this depends on the language you are using.
Visual Basic
From the projects menu select the components menu item. This will bring up a dialog where you can select DirectSkin files to use in your application. Scroll down the list until you find the 'wbOCX ActiveX Control Module'
Tick this and click ok. A new icon should appear in your toolbox window. You can now create an item of DirectSkin on the form you are using. Please note that you should add DirectSkin to your main form. When this form is closed, DirectSkin is also closed which will turn off skinning.

Visual C++
The first stage of adding a control is the same if you are making a dialog based app or a MDI / SDI app. From the Project menu, click the add to project menu item. This will produce another menu with a 'components and controls' menu item at the bottom. Select this item. A new dialog should appear. From this open the 'Registered ActiveX Controls' folder. In here find the WBOCX Control and insert this into your project

Dialog App
If you are making a dialog based app, open up the dialog in ResourceView and add the control. Then from the classwizard make a member variable for this object. Then use this to access the member variables. You would usually initialise DirectSkin in the OnInitDialog function.

MDI / SDI app
If you are making one of these then you need to add the header file (wbOCX.h) to your mainfrm.cpp file. Then create a class (or global) variable of type WbOCX. In your OnCreate function you need to create the control.
BSTR bstrLicense = ::SysAllocStringLen(pwchLicenseKey, sizeof(pwchLicenseKey)/sizeof(WCHAR));
if (!w.Create("", 0, CRect(0, 0, 0, 0), this, 0, NULL, FALSE, bstrLicense))
AfxMessageBox("Failed to load WindowBlinds skinning OCX");
::SysFreeString(bstrLicense);
pwchLicenseKey is the structure created by the Microsoft utility Licreqst which we can supply to you if you do not have it.
Delphi / C++ Builder From the component menu use the 'Import ActiveX Control' menu item. Find the WBOCX ActiveX Control Module and select it. Then use the install button to add it to the project. Once added use as every other control.

The following methods are available through DirectSkin.
Please note that not all methods are available in the demo version of DirectSkin.

Method Description

AboutBox Displays an 'About' dialog containing DirectSkin information.

AddAdditionalThread Used to apply skinning to an additional thread.

AddExcludeHwnd Adds a window to the skinning exclusion list.

AddExcludeHwndEx
As per AddExcludeHwnd, but it will return a value indicating success or failure.

AddIncludeList Adds a window to the skinning inclusion list.

AddPerWindowSkin Applies secondary skinning to a window.

CloseThemeHandle
This function frees any resources linked to the handle passed in. The handle must be obtained from GetThemeHandle and once closed you should not try to use it again.

DestroySecondarySkin Destroys a loaded secondary skin.

DetachWindow Halts DirectSkin skinning.

DisableWB2Features Disables DirectSkin features.

DoMessageBox Controls whether or not MessageBox windows are skinned.

DoWindow Starts DirectSkin skinning.

DrawSkinnedItem Draws a skin component to a device context.

DrawSkinnedItemEx Draws a skin component to a device context; allows for secondary skins and has a return value.

DrawSkinnedItemExSafe
This is the same as DrawSkinnedItemEx apart from the RECT pointer being changed into left, top, right and bottom parameters so .NET apps can use it.

DrawThemePart
This function paints the theme part as defined by the handle passed in which was obtained via the GetThemeHandle function.

DrawWindowFrameSafe This is the same as DrawWindowFrame apart fro the RECT pointer being changed into left, top, right and bottom parameters so .NET apps can use it.

EnableColouring
This function enables skin colouring support. You can use SetColourValues to set the colours.

EnableMenuExpansion
Menus are sized as per the system font, but if you want to make menus larger, or smaller then you can use this function.

EnableSpecialBackgroundSupport This function can be used to make DirectSkin treat the window passed in differently.

ExcludeExplorerBack Removes skinning from a ListView control.

ExcludeExplorerBackEx
As per ExcludeExplorerBack, but it will return a value indicating success or failure.

ForceBackgrounds
This function can be used to force DirectSkin to override all backgrounds and make them the skins button face colour.

GetRealWindowRect Gets the real rectangle of a window.

GetRealWindowRectEx
As per GetRealWindowRect, but it will return a value indicating success or failure.

GetSysColor Retrieve a system color from the currently loaded skin. Similiar to Windows

GetThemeHandle
This function allows you to define your own sections in the skin which you can then use DirectSkin to load and paint.

InitWB Reserves memory for DirectSkin and loads the skin set with LoadUIS

LoadSecondarySkin Loads a secondary skin from disk. Path supplied is not relative to the set DirectSkin root path.

LoadSecondarySkin2 Loads a secondary skin from disk. Path supplied is relative to the set DirectSkin root path.

LoadUIS Sets the skin for DirectSkin to load. InitWB or ReloadUISare called after this method.

PreventBackgroundSkinning
This function prevents background skinning on a window specified. It is obsolete.

PreviewSkinToDC This function will preview a skin (specified by skin) into the DC provided. The width and height define the size of the preview.

QueryAOTState Queries the always-on-top state of the window.

QueryRollState Queries the rolled state of the window.

RefreshWindow Forces the update region of a window to be invalidated and repainted.

ReloadUIS
Reloads the skin set with LoadUISfrom disk. This is called if LoadUIS is ever called after DoWindow has been called. For example, when changing skins.

ReloadUISEx
This function is the same as ReloadUIS.

RemoveExcludeHwnd Removes skinning exclusion from a window.

RemoveIncludeList Removes skinning inclusion from a window.

RemovePerWindowSkin Removes a secondary skin from a window.

SetAOTState Sets the internal always-on-top state of a window. This does not actually change the window Z-Order.

SetColourMode DirectSkin 4 will apply its skin to the entire app as best it can, but if for some reason you wish to revert to DirectSkin 3 behaviour you can use this function.

SetColourValues
This function sets the colour values used for skin colouring support.

SetDllHandle Sets the handle of a resource DLL. This is used with a skin's resources are in a DLL.

SetFocusMode
This function will enable or disable focus rectangles. The default is disabled.

SetGamma
This function sets the gamma of the skin. After changing this you need to call ReloadUIS to alter the skin gamma.

SetIncludeorExcludeMode Sets the include or exclude mode of DirectSkin. In include mode, only windows in the inclusion list are skinned. In exclude mode, any windows in the process apart from windows in the exclusion list are skinned. Exclude mode is enabled by default.

SetMenuSkinProp Enables and disables menu border skinning.

SetRootPath Used to set the root skin directory DirectSkin uses. This method is limited to using the application directory or the WindowBlinds directory.

SetRootPathStr Used to set the root skin directory DirectSkin uses. This method takes a string-based path and is not limited.

SetUnicode DirectSkin supports UNICODE languages, but this support is disabled by default. To enable this support call this function and pass TRUE in.

SetWbHelp2Loc Sets the location of DirectSkin's dependency DLL.

SetWindowRollState Sets the internal roll state of a window. This method will not visibly effect the window.

SkinAllThreads
This function makes DirectSkin skin all the threads in your app, not just the one it was originally called from.

StartSkinning
This is an alternative way to start skinning. You can call this instead of calling InitWB and DoWindow.

StopSkinning
This function will stop skinning and revert the app back to the current systemwide style.

ShowPreview Used for previewing skins. Skins to be previewed are provided as a DirectSkin root related path, and shown in a system modal dialog.

UxThemeEmulation If your application ships with a manifest then you should call this function when on WindowsXP.

UndoWB Deallocates memory in use by DirectSkin. This is called after calling DetachWindow (when the application is terminating). If skinning must be restarted after calling this method, InitWB must be called.

UseToolbarBackground
This function can be used to tell DirectSkin that the Rebar background defined in a skin should be applied to the background of a specified toolbar.