Skinning or Custom Controls?

[SidM]

I'm trying to write a class that will allow me to create Windows with the same basic look as Valve Software's Steam application (http://www.steampowered.com/). I wrote a test application using regions and it just isn't working out, it's hogging resources and it's not really what I'm looking for.

I'd like to use the Win32 API and directly change the color of the parts of my window, would it be possible to do this to implement something like Steam's UI?

Steam appears to do something like this, I know that to make a skin for it all you need to do is create some custom icons and pick a color scheme.

Thanks,

Sid

[NoHero]

All of those are custom drawn standard controls. For simplicity you can use images and overlay them over the owner drawn standard controls.

[Amn]

If you want to be serious, use the Theme API. Look it up on MSDN. It is synonymous with 'owner-drawn' controls, but is the 'official' way of doing it. Because it provides a way of changing the skin through Windows display properties, and those who dont like it can disable it completely by turning off the Theme service.