How is it possible to set a control''s color? I''m talking about Windows controls like dialog boxes, text boxes, etc. I''ve tried stuff like SetBkColor() and re-registering windows classes and obtaining device contexts to the windows, but I''m not really sure how to do this, and there is only poor description in the MSDN docs. (This is for straight Win32/C++ calls, no MFC or VB.) Thanks in advance! MatrixCubed
http://MatrixCubed.org

For alot of controls you can handle the WM_CTLCOLOR message and just return a color brush to fill the background. You can also add a handler for WM_ERASEBKGND and fill the color yourself for alot of controls. For dialogs you just fill the background color in a WM_PAINT handlers. There are *some* controls which refuse to be colored in any case, the worst offender being the scrollbar control.

HTH

Doug Sutherland