Implement Dark Mode In VS2022 VB Project

Have you seen this? I don't know if it woks, haven't tried it yet. It caught my attention cause it's written in VB. https://vbdotnetforums.com/threads/windows-forms-dark-mode-test.67749/

In regards to my form, is there any way I can upload the project to you directly? It's a single form but it's pretty complex. It's based off the Explorer form. It uses a tabbed control with multiple tabs. Each tab uses one or more split containers to allow for resizing regions. Some tabs have a combination treeview/listview combination. Others just use listviews.

Hi

Easiest way: upload the entire Project folder (ensure there is nothing private in it) to (say) "One Drive" or similar and post a link here.

The reason I say "entire Project folder" is that there may be resources contained there.

There are two projects in the solution, an app project and the "library" that the app accesses to do it's thing. The form does not "do" anything yet it's just there. I will include it anyway. The library currently contains code that is intended to replicate Windows Device Manager. The purpose of the app is to gather information about the system and write it to s database. I am currently reworking my approach. I have One Drive and GMail, which would you prefer?

In regards to the link I sent you, the demo project works like a champ, but when I try to implement it in my project it fails because my.* is broken in Net 8 and it uses my.settings. I am going to try and find an alternate method. If I can get it to work then I will be good and will not need to upload anything.

Hi

I believe that link is indeed discussing what I had come across and that I mentioned earlier. You did notice that is says from NET 9 on, so maybe that is something you might need to check on. Goof luck, let me know how it works out.

It is automatic in .NET 9

as explained at Application.SetColorMode(SystemColorMode)

Yes, I have seen references to this in my searches of the internet. Do you think 9 is stable enough to attempt to use this? Even if it is possible I'm still unsure how to implement it in my project and it becomes even more unclear when it is implemented in VB.Net.

The problem is that they say :

"Set it before creating any UI elements to ensure that the correct color mode is used.

... If the system setting is changed, the application will not automatically adapt to the new setting.

"

so application must be re-started.

So it would be better to do like in C++/Win32, by handling WM_SETTINGCHANGE and "ImmersiveColorSet" to get notified when dark/light mode changes and then update colors of controls

Otherwise I quicky tested SystemColorMode in .NET 9 with

 Partial Friend Class MyApplication
        Private Sub MyApplication_ApplyApplicationDefaults(sender As Object, e As ApplyApplicationDefaultsEventArgs) Handles Me.ApplyApplicationDefaults
            e.ColorMode = SystemColorMode.Dark
        End Sub
    End Class

and for Button style :

 Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        If Application.ColorMode = SystemColorMode.Dark Then
            Button1.FlatStyle = FlatStyle.System
            'TabPage1.BackColor = SystemColors.ControlDark
            'StatusStrip1.BackColor = SystemColors.ControlDark
        End If
    End Sub

Thank you for the assist, it is much appreciated. I am a fair programmer and can usually figure stuff out if I either have something to work with or some first hand knowledge on the subject but there is absolutely nothing to work with other than those two pages. There are no coding examples showing how to implement using Dark Mode. Thank you for getting me started.

Two questions, !) How do I implement the Win32 logic? and 2) How far to I have to take with regard to defining the controls? Do I define logic for every control? This doesn't seem very automatic to me.

Thank you for the assist, this is very helpful I have two questions, !) How do I implement the Win32 logic? and 2) How far to I have to take with regard to defining the controls? Do I define logic for every control? This doesn't seem very automatic to me.

To be notified when Dark/Light mode changes, you can use about the same logic as in this code for example (WM_SETTINGCHANGE) : https://github.com/MaxKhomyn/Design/blob/5226e756796ae7a2dedb66c38aeae38d0427322d/src/Design/Resources/SystemTheme.cs#L8

(use ChatGPT to convert it into VB.NET, it is usually good for code conversions)

Thank you. I have access to a couple conversion utilities. I have never used ChatGPT for code conversion though. I have used it for other coding stuff. Your example shows controls being created. Is that just for the sake of demonstration or do I have to manually create controls? I know that I will have to provide logic in my code to handle any controls that have issues. I had ChatGPT assist in creating a class to do this. It's probably overkill. Would you mind taking a look at it? Something tells me that I'm WAY off base.