Need help with Tab Control on 24H2/25H2 with the new DarkMode_DarkTheme

[WildByDesign]

Note: Using the example from this thread requires Windows 11 24H2/25H2 (build 26100.6899 or higher).

Microsoft has finally been making dark mode more of a priority in the latest Windows 11 builds over the past year. I feel like the majority of controls got some nice improvements. The tab control (SysTabControl32) also got some nice improvements. See in the screenshot below.

Screenshot:

The only problem, as you can see, is the white area behind the tabs. Otherwise the design is quite beautiful and nice.

Challenge:

What can we do to remove or recolour the white area?

It would be best if we can modify only the tab area and not modify the bottom section.

Some thoughts and ideas:

• Pixel hack top section and swap white (in this case 0xf0f0f0) pixels for darker pixels
  • This may have negative effect on white text possibly
• Some sort of layered window approach with LWA_COLORKEY
  • This also would likely mess up the white text
• Custom paint tabs like @UEZ does in SampleControls.au3 in Dark Mode
  • That example paints the entire tab control (tab area and content area bottom)
  • It might be good if just painting over the tab area only in this case

Those are the only ideas that I could think of. But I am sure that there are better ways to handle that white area that I just don't know about. I'm going to read some stuff on msdn now to learn more about different functions for tab controls.

If anyone has any ideas to try, please have a go at it. I am curious to see what we can do to improve on this. Thank you for your time.

Current testing code:

expandcollapse popup

#include <WindowsNotifsConstants.au3>
#include <GUIConstantsEx.au3>
#include <WinAPITheme.au3>
#include <WinAPIGdi.au3>

; initiate System DPI awareness
DllCall("user32.dll", "bool", "SetProcessDpiAwarenessContext", @AutoItX64 ? "int64" : "int", -2)

Example()

Func Example()
    Local $hGUI = GUICreate("DarkTheme TabControl (24H2/25H2)", 500, 300)

    GUISetBkColor(0x202020)
    GUISetFont(10)

    Local $idTab = GUICtrlCreateTab(20, 20, 460, 260)

    GUICtrlCreateTabItem("tab0")
    GUICtrlCreateTabItem("tab1")
    GUICtrlCreateTabItem("tab2")
    GUICtrlSetState(-1, $GUI_SHOW)
    GUICtrlCreateTabItem("tab3")
    GUICtrlCreateTabItem("tab4")

    ; remove focus rectangle from tab control
    GUICtrlSendMsg($idTab, $WM_CHANGEUISTATE, 65537, 0)

    ; set dark titlebar
    _WinAPI_DwmSetWindowAttribute($hGUI, $DWMWA_USE_IMMERSIVE_DARK_MODE, True)

    ; set theme
    If _is24H2Plus() Then _WinAPI_SetWindowTheme(GUICtrlGetHandle($idTab), 'DarkMode_DarkTheme')

    GUISetState(@SW_SHOW)

    Local $idMsg
    While 1
        $idMsg = GUIGetMsg()

        If $idMsg = $GUI_EVENT_CLOSE Then ExitLoop
    WEnd
EndFunc   ;==>Example

Func _is24H2Plus()
    ; check if this OS build is Windows 11 24H2/25H2 to support the newer DarkMode_DarkTheme
    Local $iRevision = RegRead("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion", "UBR")
    Local $b24H2Plus = False
    If @OSBuild >= 26100 And $iRevision >= 6899 Then
        $b24H2Plus = True
    Else
        ConsoleWrite("Windows 11 24H2/25H2 (build 26100.6899 or higher) is required to use DarkMode_DarkTheme.")
    EndIf
    Return $b24H2Plus
EndFunc

 

Edited 7 hours ago by WildByDesign

[WildByDesign]

I see some mentions of TCM_SETBKCOLOR on GitHub but I don't see any documentation from Microsoft about it.

[mLipok]

Maybe this following concept

use
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/controls/wm-notify
to watch for:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/controls/hdn-getdispinfo

Then use:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/commctrl/ns-commctrl-nmhddispinfoa
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/richedit/ns-richedit-nmhdr

to Get Header Hwnd and DC use brush to paint the header

other link
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/commctrl/nf-commctrl-listview_getheader
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/controls/lvm-getheader