Question

I’m using System.Windows.MessageBox in a WPF app, and for some reason its buttons are styled the Windows 2000 way – not WinXP, not Aero, not the WPF default. Just gray with basic 3d borders.

How can I make them appear with a more modern style? (doesn’t really matter which one)

Answer 1

You can fix this with a manifest. See this article for step-by-step instructions: Why am I Getting Old Style File Dialogs and Message Boxes with WPF

Basically, you have to add an XML file called a ‘manifest’ to your application.

Update:

Actually, it is very easy to do this in VS2008. Go to Project Properties->Application and click the ‘View UAC Settings’ button. This will automatically create an application manifest file and open it. Edit this file as follows:

Just after the line:

</trustInfo>

Paste in the following dependency section:

  <!-- Activate Windows Common Controls v6 usage (XP and Vista): -->
  <dependency>
    <dependentAssembly>
      <assemblyIdentity
          type="win32"
          name="Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls"
          version="6.0.0.0"
          processorArchitecture="*"
          publicKeyToken="6595b64144ccf1df"
          language="*"
        />
    </dependentAssembly>
  </dependency>

My complete manifest looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<asmv1:assembly manifestVersion="1.0" xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" xmlns:asmv1="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" xmlns:asmv2="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v2" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
  <assemblyIdentity version="1.0.0.0" name="MyApplication.app"/>
  <trustInfo xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v2">
    <security>
      <requestedPrivileges xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3">
        <!-- UAC Manifest Options
            If you want to change the Windows User Account Control level replace the 
            requestedExecutionLevel node with one of the following.

        <requestedExecutionLevel  level="asInvoker" uiAccess="false" />
        <requestedExecutionLevel  level="requireAdministrator" uiAccess="false" />
        <requestedExecutionLevel  level="highestAvailable" uiAccess="false" />

            If you want to utilize File and Registry Virtualization for backward 
            compatibility then delete the requestedExecutionLevel node.
        -->
        <requestedExecutionLevel level="asInvoker" uiAccess="false" />
      </requestedPrivileges>
    </security>
  </trustInfo>
  <!-- Activate Windows Common Controls v6 usage (XP, Vista, Win 7) to support themed dialogs: -->
  <dependency>
    <dependentAssembly>
      <assemblyIdentity
          type="win32"
          name="Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls"
          version="6.0.0.0"
          processorArchitecture="*"
          publicKeyToken="6595b64144ccf1df"
          language="*"
        />
    </dependentAssembly>
  </dependency>
</asmv1:assembly>

After doing this, just build your app, run, and voila, the MessageBox dialog buttons take on the system theme style.