Nice idea but held back by the lack of support for transparency. Wanted the Aero theme but it just doesn't look right with a grey workspace background around all the toolbars (that's where the transparent bits should go to make it cool).
Would be good if this is fully supported as a built-in feature in the next Visual Studio.
One possible improvement for this version; it is not something people change every day so should not be set as a main menu item, just hidden in Tools-Options.
But well implemented besides the menu position so 4 stars from me.
Other ideas for the future: 1) Change the theme when a bug occurs. 2) As others have said here, change the theme for each new window. 3) Change the theme according to daylight. Us programmers burn the midnight oil or occasionally work overnight to meet a deadline, would be cool if the studio was changing "mood" like one of those lamps from Philips :-)
Wow...!!! That's what I always was looking for! It increases productivity and stability of VS2010 tremendously!!! No wonder MS has no time to fix bugs if you waste time with that sort of things.
I normally have multiple instances of VS2010 running at the same time for each app layer (app server, UI ...etc...) Just wonder if it is possible to set theme for each window. Anyway, great stuff.
I've really enjoyed using this. With VS 11 this extension becomes critically important to me, since MS has stubbornly forced light gray (new RC screenshots) on us. PLEASE, PLEASE let this work on VS 11. Being able to add some contrast (like that burgundy screen-shot you have here) is very important to me.
It should be easy, more or less same code.
Please add support for VS11.
If it is possible it could be great also to make possible to change icons.
Than whoever doesn't want new gray icons, can return colorful icons back.
Thanks.
I concur. This renders the WF designer utterly unusable and illegible; nearly everything is the same colour!
Any chance of a update to fix this or a workaround?
Has anyone found a fix for this? I barely used this tool and never used the WF designer until this past week, and now I can't see lines/arrows either.
Help??
Here's the answer:
reg delete HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\UseDebugColorScheme /f
reg delete HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\ThemeColorCache /f
These keys left hanging around will prevent the WF designer from looking correct. Removing these keys fixed it all up for me.
Any chance we could get a VS2011 version of this software :) when I try to install it (Changing in the install files so it install to vs2011) I get this http://www.gratisimage.dk/graphic/images/2011/December/05/3ABB_4EDD2B0B.jpg :) (No matter which theme I choose)
Working on the Developer Preview and upcoming releases of Visual Studio have been consuming all of my time right now, but please keep an eye out for some announcements in the near future!
Hi Matthew, great feature for the VS2010.
I work at a company called ISaGRAF. We produce software for industrial applications. Our new platform, which is a compiler for embedded applications, is based on Visual Studio 2010 isolated Shell. We have brand labelled the msdev.exe to Acp.exe (for Automation Collaborative Platform). Now my question is:
is it possible to use your theme editor in the ACP?
btw, once installed, we have our own registry keys... this is why i'm assuming that the theme editor wont work out-of-box.
Issue solved,
I didn't have to recompile anything. Simply copying the VsPackage in my LookInFolder directory makes the VsPackage available.
Where does the color theme gets persisted? In the registry?
I'm glad you figured that out! Sorry I haven't been able to keep more up-to-date on the forums, it's been a busy few months.
Yes, the theme values are stored in the registry. The registry key that immediately affects rendering in Visual Studio (using devenv's registry root as an example) is HKCU\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\UseDebugColorScheme\VSColors. Other data from the extension is stored in HKCU\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\ThemeColorCache (the serialized set of custom themes, the ID for the current theme, etc.)
Caveat: this themeing system is not guaranteed to be future-proof (that is, there can be breaking changes in the future versions of the Visual Studio shell that affect how this works).
I've created a (freeware) app that lets you create VS themes quickly by letting you select lots of colours and, for example, randomize a particular channel. The zip also includes 3 themes. I've put it at http://www.filedude.com/download/7g4YH3FRpQb0c76202d2. Sorry if I'm breaking some rule by putting this link here. Not sure how to share my app.
Is it possible to change the background and foreground colors of tooltips? I've tried changing anything that says "background" or "tool" in it. I run a high contrast theme in Aero, so the text in my tooltip is white, but so is the background.
Most tooltips in Visual Studio use default system colors. As far as I know, tooltips wouldn't use any colors this extension can influence. When you say you run a high contrast theme in Aero, do you mean that you're using one of the Windows system high contrast themes (like "High Contrast Black" or "High Contrast #1"?
Is there a way to color the inactive tabs at the bottom, ie when you are on Error List, Output, Pending Changes, etc. are inactive? I cannot find this property easily. Thanks.
If I understand correctly, then I don't think there's a way. Tabs which aren't currently the selected tab have a transparent background, and the environment background shows through. Sorry!
Hi Matthew,
I'm developing a VSPackage extension for Visual Studio that contains a WPF tool window. How can i use the background color defined by the theme? Is there a name of a static resource?
Best regards,
--Daniel
You can use keys from the VsBrushes class along with the DynamicResource extension (see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.visualstudio.shell.vsbrushes.aspx). For example, you might use this for the background of your tool window in XAML (crossing my fingers and hoping XML-style input is allowed as input here):
<... xmlns:vs="clr-namespace:Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell;assembly=Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.10.0">
<Border Background="{DynamicResource {x:Static vs:VsBrushes.ToolWindowBackgroundKey}}" />
There were some themes and when I change them then the background of menu changes, but when I try to use the "Customize colors" I cannot change it, it is possible to change some another backgrounds, but not the menu.
