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winapivisual-c++windows-7windows-xpwindows-vista

Ribbon UI and Desktop Window Manager API on windows

I am trying to implement my own ribbon UI in native c++. How is this implemented on windows XP ?? Unfortunately I cannot use any of the available frameworks.

I have been able to get my app working on windows 7 following the sample shown at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb688195(v=VS.85).aspx

My app has buttons in the titlebar area on the top left corner and tabs integrated with glass/window background.This works for vista and 7 but not on XP. Is it possible to implement this on XP ??

Office 2010 seems to still have the same look sans the glass effect when i turn off the Aero theme on win7. How would i get this to happen in my app??

Thanks, Abhinay

Solution

  • It is not possible to implement ribbon UI yourself on Windows XP since Windows XP does not contain an API for that purpose. Apart from that the ribbon UI internally uses the undocumented NetUI (the class name of the ribbon window is NetUIHWND).