Problem with Z-index of the controls in WIXUI(Problem of overlapping) - wix

I am trying to design a dialog box for License aggrement and other dialog boxes.
Now if I set a image(.jpg/.bmp) in background of my dialog box then the checkbox will get disappear,and it is not visible until I hover the mouse over it. And the same problem appears with a pushbutton.
*) I first thought it could be because of the large size of the image but I also tried with smaller sized images and the problem existed with them too.
*) I also tried with changing the z-index of the controls but this still did not solve my problem.
Where is the problem?. Where am I going wrong?

Have a look at the dialogs included in the UI extension, you should be able to examine similar dialogs and work backwards to figure out what's going on. There's a background bitmap on the welcome dialog for example.
http://wix.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/wix/wix/src/ext/UIExtension/wixlib/
Edit: In response to the comment about the Office 2007 installation experience, Office uses an external UI, not the built in stuff that Windows Installer provides. The setup is in WiX, but the UI isn't - there's more than 20 MSI files on the Office 2007 Ultimate disk, the external UI hides all of this from you to make it appear as a single installation package when in reality it's actually a whole lot more complicated.
Edit 2: See http://blogs.msdn.com/windows_installer_team/archive/2005/07/23/442584.aspx for a good starting point on implementing non-native Windows Installer UI

I tried adding TabSkip attribute and now the checkbox is above the bitmap.
<Control Id="Image" Type="Bitmap" TabSkip="no" X="0" Y="0" Width="374" Height="234" Text="BitmapFile" />

Related

vb.net windows form automatic resizing

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.

Read only Edit Control

I have an edit control that I would like to be read-only. I have set the attribute Disabled="yes" however my user cannot copy and paste from the control.
Is there any way around this?
Thanks
Unfortunately, the Windows Installer does not support the read-only bit in the Edit control and, as you found, making the control disabled prevents all interaction with the control. This is one of many examples where the built in MSI UI is very limited.

How to resolve Windows Forms designer issue - controls move on debug?

Is there a reason / fix for this weird designer issue (at least, I think it's related to the designer), whereby the controls on the form do not appear as they do in the design window when I debug the application..!
Please see the following two screenshots to demonstrate the problem (note: I have blacked out some of the content of the form, this is not the problem):
Picture 1: Showing how the form appears in the designer view
Picture 2: Showing how the form appears in debug mode
You can clearly see that some of the buttons have moved position on the form.
Note: At first glance, this may appear like a duplicate of: Windows Forms Designer destroys form layout. However, I have not installed any additional tools or components. This is simply a standard "vanilla" build of Visual Studio 2012 on Windows 7 32-bit.
I've also come across this question: UI Controls Overlapping & Fonts Issue in Windows Forms Application. However, I am not using "large fonts", nor am I using any non-standard fonts on my controls (all label and button text is left as default). Still, I can see how this would affect the control positions and will do some more checks in this area.
There's nothing happening within the form's Load method.
I'm also using TFS 2012.
What could be causing this? Is there anything I can do to fix it?
EDIT: I've removed the font property for each label and button control, allowing the system to set the default value. Still no change. Interestingly, if I open the form in design mode, then save it, then close it, then open it again, the buttons have moved... If I do this a few times, the buttons migrate until they're off the form.
OK, I've found the answer, after a bit more fiddling. It seems to be related to the Anchor property on the controls. I made a bunch of changes, testing between each change to see if there was any difference. When I selected all the controls and set the Anchor property to Top, Left, this solved the issue.
I hope this helps someone else at some point!

Windows Installer dialog minimize button

I am developing a windows installer using WiX 3.0.
The installer dialog, while installing, if minimized and then again maximized, gets stuck in the top left corner of the screen with very little user interface visible from and no buttons/controls are visible.
Is there any way to disable the minimize button from the installer dialog or is there any way that the click event on the minimize button can be captured and handled?
This is a Windows 7 bug, was reported a couple of years ago on the WiX mailing list and comes up repeatedly as new developers find the same bug :)
http://windows-installer-xml-wix-toolset.687559.n2.nabble.com/Re-WiX-users-Install-on-Windows-7-minimize-the-installation-wizard-then-only-see-a-slice-of-the-instd-td4430104.html
As far as I know, that is not possible. It could be possible that this problem has been fixed with a newer version of WiX. WiX 3.6 RC is available now and might be worth looking into.

Washed Out Controls with VB.NET

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. :)