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From: Gidi on 17 Jan 2010 07:00
Hi,

I've a windows application that i programmed few years ago (with Visual
Studio 2005), and used it on XP for few years, I moved now to Windows 7 and I
noticed that some colors are not the same on the two OS.
Is it possible to make sure my application will look the same both on XP and
Windows 7?

Thanks,
Gidi.
From: Andrew Poelstra on 17 Jan 2010 12:00
On 2010-01-17, Gidi <shnapsi(a)hotmail.com.dontspam> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I've a windows application that i programmed few years ago (with Visual
> Studio 2005), and used it on XP for few years, I moved now to Windows 7 and I
> noticed that some colors are not the same on the two OS.
> Is it possible to make sure my application will look the same both on XP and
> Windows 7?
>
> Thanks,
> Gidi.

If you're using system colors anywhere, even behind the scenes, your
UI components will look different across operating systems. But this
is probably a Good Thing since your app will be consistent with the
other apps on the user's machine.

To fix it, (I think) you'll have to go through and manually assign
colors to everything.

From: Harlan Messinger on 17 Jan 2010 12:44
Andrew Poelstra wrote:
> On 2010-01-17, Gidi <shnapsi(a)hotmail.com.dontspam> wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I've a windows application that i programmed few years ago (with Visual
>> Studio 2005), and used it on XP for few years, I moved now to Windows 7 and I
>> noticed that some colors are not the same on the two OS.
>> Is it possible to make sure my application will look the same both on XP and
>> Windows 7?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Gidi.
>
> If you're using system colors anywhere, even behind the scenes, your
> UI components will look different across operating systems. But this
> is probably a Good Thing since your app will be consistent with the
> other apps on the user's machine.
>
> To fix it, (I think) you'll have to go through and manually assign
> colors to everything.
>

But really, if the OP didn't bother setting the colors to make his form
look different from the standard Windows form, so that on XP his app
looked like an XP app, conforming to the OS's standard look and feel,
then why would he want it not to conform to the OS's standard look and
feel on Windows 7?
From: Peter Duniho on 17 Jan 2010 12:48
Gidi wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I've a windows application that i programmed few years ago (with Visual
> Studio 2005), and used it on XP for few years, I moved now to Windows 7 and I
> noticed that some colors are not the same on the two OS.
> Is it possible to make sure my application will look the same both on XP and
> Windows 7?

Depends on what you mean. Even on the same computer, different users
can assign different colors to different parts of your user interface,
and this is _intentional_ and a VERY good thing.

Not only does it allow the user to select colors that are pleasing to
them, it allows users with specific vision concerns to select colors
that allow them to actually _read_ the screen.

It's a mistake to try to force colors on the user. Doing so can only
restrict the usability of your program and annoy users.

Pete
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