Vista Glass and Other Controls in C# | The Coffeehouse

ricodued

I just installed Vista RTM, effectively ending my almost year-long Mac stint. I've been reinvigorated with new ideas and drawn back to programming (and subsequently C9). Hoorah!

After scouring the web, I came across the different methods of glass implementation, all of which suck on some level or another. Now, I'm really interested in how us .NETters are supposed to go about implementing the other awesome Vista UI controls: command bar things, menu buttons, the new tabs, toolbars, etc. etc.

Is there any way to use these new controls, or, like XP, do we have to wait around for .NET version X with a year left in the Vista lifecycle in order to catch up?

If we have to rely on third party controls for the next three years I just may have to march to Redmond and do nasty, horrible, unspeakable acts involving UNIX.

/loves me some Vista UI goodness
//hates me some third party controls
///I'm looking at you, divelements

JChung2006

Check out the Windows Vista Developer Center.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/default.aspx

What you're looking for is the Windows SDK.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/downloads/products/default.aspx

Here's a link for the Web installer of the Windows SDK.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/a/7/7/a7767f09-0136-4a96-a1f8-276bf0ee31fa/Setup.exe

There are plenty of links at the Developer Center to get you started with Vista UI controls, if you are a Win32 programmer. As for the .NET development story, the next version of Visual Studio, aka Visual Studio Orcas, is available as a CTP release.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa700831.aspx

I also recommend checking out Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), aka Avalon, which is available as part of the current .NET framework release (3.0) if you're interested in next-generation Windows user interface development.