Ok, so I have been trying to figure this out for a few days now, but I'm not sure if VB supports this functionality. I'm sure C includes some sort of support for what I'm attempting do do with :
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms724940%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
But basically, I'm trying to alter the systems colors. For example, change the colors of the "Active Title Bar" or the "Desktop". I know there is a way using SystemParametersInfo to change the desktop image, but I'm pretty sure there's no method for altering the system colors. If anybody has any suggestions, I'm open to trying anything.
Related
Goal
I want to be able to access AutoCAD's Color chooser from an external application. This means that I will not be using AutoCAD to make the color chooser dialog popup. Instead, I will be using a VB.Net application to manage these colors.
Current Situation
As for now, I have no idea where to start. Do I need to import a specific library to make this work? Is it even possible to do this without AutoCAD running?
.NET has a basic built-in color picker control if you want to drive outside of AutoCAD:
System.Windows.Forms.ColorDialog
You'll likely need a helper class/extension methods for converting ARGB colors to AutoCAD colors. Although may find it better to just roll your own. Use IlSpy, DotPeek, or .NET Reflector to look at how the AutoDesk class gets instanciated/used.
I recently upgraded my system to Windows 7 Professional. Furthermore, I recently upgraded from VB6 to VB.NET and I've been working with forms and control under the new interface. Controls such as text boxes and tab controls are washed out and very difficult to see.
In my attempt to remedy the situation, I personalized my display by unchecking the box under "Windows Color" entitled "Enable transparency" and adjusting the Color Intensity slider all the way to the right. But no matter what I try to do, I still get washed-out form colors.
Is there a setting for adjusting the default form colors? What am I missing?
It seems to me that you have a couple of choices, all of which you probably won't like.
Change your Textbox BorderStyle from Fixed3D to FixedSingle, this will give you a more pronounced border around the textboxes (no such property on comboboxes though). This will also make your textboxes look a lot more 'flat', which you may not want.
Change either the background of your form or the background of your controls, thereby providing a better contrast between the two. Even slight variations on the same color would help.
Purchase (or make your own) custom controls that have built-in style changing abilities. I use the Telerik controls sometimes. They have the ability to let you change the UI Element's styles, including all kinds of colors and different borders and such. The issue with this option is a lot of these custom controls are overly expensive, although you can find decent ones for fairly cheap sometimes (I found a control set once that was pretty nice for $19).
Whatever you decide to do, you have to remember that your form will look different to users that are using different operating systems than what you're developing on. You noticed a big change when you went from (I'm assuming) Windows XP to Windows 7 right? You have to remember to test your application on all operating systems that your application will be expected to run on. You could design it beautifully on Windows 7 and it may look horrible on XP. You may be able to ignore OSs that are older than XP, but for the time being almost 50% of users still use XP (last I checked).
BTW, there is no setting for adjusting the default form colors... this just happens to be how forms look on Windows 7. I found it an adjustment when I went from XP to Win7, but you get used to it. I very rarely make the background of my controls the same color as the background of my form just because of this... oh, and don't go changing your display, you want to see what your users are going to see - otherwise you'll end up with something that only looks good on your computer. :)
I am trying to load bulk images and trying to put them as a slideshow and it's working fine.
Now I would like to have some effects like flip out,ease out effect and fade effect on those images when changing them without using any user control as I would like to do with the existing picturebox.Is it possible to do so?
If so can anyone point me to some resources.
As I have done googling and found some useful links and I am placing here that might helpful to someone.And all these have use seperate usercontrols to do, and I am not looking into that.
http://code.google.com/p/dot-net-transitions/
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cpp/fluid_effect.aspx
The built-in picture box has no such capability. Your solution will require custom-drawing regardless what control you use (assuming you don't get a 3rd party product).
I have a very particular application I have developed. I want to create a second app, ideally in visual basic, that provides a tutorial/ guide on how to use my original app step by step.
I imagine PowerPoint slide style images embedded in a simple window with forward & back controls.
I have experience in java, C & VB. Ideally the app needs be be kept simple and written in VB. Can anyone recommend a starting point, or if any tutorials for such exist? I've had a search and nothing stands out.
Thanks.
So, if this essentially just has slides and annotations and forward/backward buttons, why try to write an app for this? (I get that it might be fun to try.) You could simply do screen captures and annotate them and use PowerPoint and create an executable out of that to run.
You can even, I understand, create hyperlinks and such to allow the slide show to progress more like the real app does. I'm no "power point ranger" so I'd point you at the Office docs to learn about that, but I've seen some pretty good tutorials using this method.
i am trying to figure out how this software works:
http://www.stereopsis.com/flux/
specifically, i would like to know how it changes the colors on your machine, and also was wondering if this would be possible to do in vb.net?
Most likely they play around with color management. Graphical operating systems allow for color calibration which changes the look of colors on a display. This is primarily used so the display has exactly the same color gamut as printers for design purposes or that the display has natural-looking colors. In this case it is used to adjust the color temperature programmatically.
In the FAQ they state "Currently, we don't recommend running f.lux on calibrated systems running Windows" which seems to reinforce the idea that they are messing with the color calibration (and are probably replacing the one you did previously).
Windows has support for this beginning with Vista and you probably can use this with VB.NET but not natively from .NET, meaning you will have to use the API directly. Here is an introduction about the Windows Color System on MSDN.
Note: Tried it out. Yes, they do mess with the color calibration. And they're pretty aggressive in that regard. Whenever I click "Reload current calibrations" in the color management panel to get my own calibration back (Windows 7 here) it gets reset by f.lux. It seems they are setting this about once a second. Now imagine there are two programs doing this :-)