Change WPF application manifest?

Question

I posted a comment to Microsoft that the Dialog Boxes in WPF are not VisualStyle enabled.

Joe Castro posted a workaround there which I don't really understand how to achieve, can anyone help?

Here is he's response:

For app compat reasons applications don't by default use v6 of the system common controls (available since XP). This doesn't really apply to WPF, but you also only see it in a few situations when using the native controls so it's not as prevalent as WinForms where their APIs are just wrapping the standard controls.

To fix this in WPF you need to explicitly opt-in to v6 comctl32 by specifying it in a manifest in your exe. This has to be done on the exe, so WPF can't do it as part of their DLLs. EnableVisualStyles does this at runtime but this way is generally better.

E.g., something like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0">
    <description>MyExe.exe</description>
    <dependency>
        <dependentAssembly>
            <assemblyIdentity
                type="win32"
                name="Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls"
                version="6.0.0.0"
                processorArchitecture="*"
                publicKeyToken="6595b64144ccf1df"
                language="*"/>
        </dependentAssembly>
    </dependency>
</assembly>

Answer 1

I wrote about it on my blog some time ago:

Those posts describe the problem and the solution: http://www.nbdtech.com/blog/archive/2008/05/28/Why-am-I-Getting-Old-Style-File-Dialogs-and-Message.aspx , http://www.nbdtech.com/blog/archive/2008/06/08/Will-Setting-a-Manifest-Solve-My-WPF-Message-Box-Style.aspx

This post is what you are looking for : http://www.nbdtech.com/blog/archive/2008/06/16/The-Application-Manifest-Needed-for-XP-and-Vista-Style-File.aspx

And this talks about how to get the Vista style for file open and save dialogs: http://www.nbdtech.com/blog/archive/2008/07/15/Vista-style-open-and-save-dialogs-with-WPF-without-using.aspx

Answer 2

In Visual Basic, the project properties are structured a little differently. If you find this question and you're in VB in VS2010, follow these instructions to generate an app.manifest file.

1. To create an app.manifest file, go to your project, and select properties. Then click on View Window Settings, under the Application tab.
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2. This should generate and open the app.manifest file, which is saved in your My Project Folder
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Further Reading: WPF MessageBox window style