Search code examples
windows-7windows-installerribbonwindows-ribbon-framework

Can I use the Windows Ribbon UI on Windows XP? how?

I understand from reading Arik Poznanski's blog that the Windows Ribbon UI Framework is a COM object in Windows 7, and the WindowsRibbon wrapper is just a .NET veneer around that, to allow the Ribbon UI to be used in Windows Forms applications.

I've been successful in implementing a Hello World Windows Form app that employs this wrapper:

Windows Ribbon HEllo World

It is running on my development machine, which is Windows7.

Questions:

  • Will this "hello, world" application run on Vista? XP? Do I need to download something onto those machines in order to make that happen?

  • Is there a way to specify the Windows Ribbon UI components as a pre-requisite, in an MSI installer?

Thanks

Browsing around I found the documentation for UIRibbon.dll, which is the DLL on Windows7 that delivers the Ribbon UI. It lists these as minimum supported clients:

Windows 7, Windows Vista with SP2 and Platform Update for Windows Vista

how would I check for that in an MSI ?

Solution

  • Best I can tell, you are taking on a dependency that won't work on Windows XP. This doesn't seem to be a redistributable component ( although I will admit hacking on a VM trying to see if I could transplant it into an XP machine ).

    Since it isn't redistributable, I'm not sure there's any point in doing a search in MSI as you can just rely on checking the OS Major version ( Win7 ).