In Windows Phone 7/8 we had this handy Theme Resources like PhoneTextTitle1Style that would reflect the users selected Theme.
What is the equivalent in Windows Store apps?
A good way to find the styles that can apply to a control such as TextBlock is to select the control in the designer, go to the properties pane, click on the square next to the "Style" property, and choose the System Resource or Local Resource menus:
They are also documented and demonstrated in the Guidelines for label (or text block)'s XAML style gallery for Windows Store apps
These styles will reflect the app's current theme (dark or light) or high-contrast mode, but are not directly personalized by the user.
Windows doesn't expose the start screen background colour to apps. Windows Store apps are supposed to use their own branded colours and don't have anything analogous to Windows Phone's PhoneAccentBrush.
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I have a windows form in my vb.net application which has recently started resizing itself dependant on the computers screen resolution.
I would like the form to be a fixed width and height - how can i make it do this and not resize itself?
You may try to change the property AutoScaleMode.
The default is FONT (the correct to most different systems DPI), but you may try other options there.
UPDATE
I saw now you may set the PROPERTIES of a file in the DESKTOP to "Deactivate Dimmension in High-DPI Settings" (it´s translated from Portuguese, my system). Click in the desktop application´s properties (its icon) and go to COMPATIBILITY TAB.
It´s not a .NET solution but if Windows had put it there, is because it´s possible the only way to set it.
How do I add an appbar with buttons to a Windows Phone 8.1 app using the Hub template?
I do not see any clear examples of how to do this.
Specifically, using the Hub template, I want to add appbar menu items to the ItemsPage.xaml.
In Windows Phone 8.1 projects you have to use the CommandBar API.
Take a look on this guide, it's for Windows 8.1, but the syntax is exactly same. Note that you have to only use the BottomAppBar where the PrimaryCommands are displayed as standard AppBar buttons as we know them, and the SecondaryCommands are displayed as Menu Items.
Are About dialog boxes "dead" in Windows 8 Metro apps? I looked over quite a few apps and screenshots of apps in the Windows store, and did not find any "inspiration".
Is there any guidelines from Microsoft or any article that discusses this issue?
What do you think is the best way to show a dialog box/popup that shows the app name, version, author and a link to the app's home page?
I am thinking of a icon button in the bottom appbar, something like "About Appname", that opens a popup with this information. I am using C# and XAML.
You would place the About into the Settings pane via the Settings Charm using the Setting Contract. You can see the About in almost all of the apps in the Store today. Quick start on adding Settings can be found here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/xaml/hh872190.aspx
Guidelines for app settings here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh770544.aspx
Take a look here.
It lets you create dialogs/flyouts very easily from a UserControl. A few lines of boiler plate and you are done. Takes care of animation, UI management etc.
I've got an old Visual Studio 6-made program, and when I install it on Windows 8, it has a default tile. Problem is, it's the smaller tile and the name of the program is too long to fit in comfortably, plus the icon is resized and looks bad.
Is there a way to create a custom Windows 8 tile that's got a different size and icon, without actually creating a specific Windows 8 program? I'd like to be able to do this with batch files as well if possible.
Metro apps in Windows 8 have the full experience of creating live tiles, secondary tiles, wide tiles, etc. Only Metro apps can customize their tiles, not desktop apps. The tile APIs exist only in WinRT for Metro apps.
For a desktop app like you have (the "old Visual Studio 6-made program" that is not Metro), you can try this: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/cc144119(v=vs.85).aspx. Make sure to click on the other topics in the left sidebar too.
Edit:
This method can change the icon for older applications. Since the icon is what is used in the start menu, this is a way to give older apps a more attractive static icon in the new start menu.
Whilst live tiles are not supported for desktop applciations in Windows 8, you can improve the appearence of the icons by ensuring your Icon resource has sizes for 48px, 64px, 96px and 128px
To create the tile, right click on the executable (.exe, .com, .bat, etc), then left click on "Pin to Start".
To resize the tile, right click on the tile and select the size you want.
To move the tile, drag and drop to where you want it.
If you want to change the name, make a shortcut, change the shortcut name to what you want, then pin that to start.
I've been working on my first Metro application and I'm wanting to change my theme from the default dark theme to a light theme. It appears Metro has some built in themes if you look at the platform pane in VS11 and Blend. I assumed changing the Theme from Default(which is dark) to Light would change the system brushes from dark to light. It does appear to work in the designer but when running the program everything is still dark.
Am I doing something wrong to get the System brushes to change, or am I missing the point of what Platform theme is? Or is it just a bug?
Open up the html page you want to change and then locate <!-- WinJS references -->at the head of the document, and then change the stylesheet reference from ui-dark.cssto ui-light.css.
Do this for all html pages in the app including the default.html page.
The Platform pane isn't for making changes to your application itself. It's for setting up the simulation environment that you want to use as your design-time context. Changing the Display setting, for example, doesn't reset your screen resolution or resize your app - it still runs full screen. Similarly, Theme is an OS setting which you won't see changes in at runtime unless you change the OS theme in the control panel. This is similar in concept to how WPF uses different themes with different control templates for Aero, Royale(XP style), and Classic(Win2K style) depending on what the user is running.