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1441

answers:

4

Hi All

In Visual Studio 2008, is there any way to change the background color of the highlighted item in the Solution Explorer? The current setting makes the item quite visible when the Solution Explorer has focus (blue), but when the editor has focus, the background color is a very light gray, which makes it near impossible to see. I hate having to navigate to a type's definition, and then have to give the Solution Explorer focus to see where in the solution the current file lies.

Many thanks.

A: 

I think this is related to windows because all the treeviews in windows behave like this. you can make sure by checking the "Explorer" folder Tree. I tried to find how we can change the highlight color for Selected Items after it loses focus I couldn't find anything helpful.

related topics:

Change background color of Solution Explorer in Visual Studio

2008 Solution Explorer Focus colors

Wael Dalloul
+2  A: 

Turns out this is a Windows setting, and VS has no control over it. If you want to delve into the dark art of custom windows skinning with a Hex editor (as is needed for Vista), then there is a tutorial here on how this can be done. Unsure which property of a Windows Theme affects this behavior though, as all that is mentioned in that tutorial is the Selected Item Highlighting when a window has focus.

Ravish
A: 

Does anyone know what is the item to select in the "Item" dropdown box within the window "Window Color and Appearance" to change the color of the inactive items in the solution explorer?

Fer
Never mind, i found it. have to change the registry property [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Colors] as per this link http://forum.soft32.com/win4/change-inactive-selection-color-ftopict238821.html
Fer
+6  A: 

Hello, It is related to a system color named "3D Objects" in the advanded color selector dialog box of Windows. If you change this color, using aero themes, it affects MDI windows and it also changes the color of the selected item in an inactive window. Logic, isn'it ??? Hope this will be helpfull.

Pierre.

Pierre
Crisis Pierre, you're my hero... I dunno how this will affect other systems, but on my machine (Windows 7 with Aero enabled), changing this setting does change the selected item color in VS, with minimal impact on other settings (a few control panel windows inherit this color, as well as the active tab in Firefox).
Ravish
(Amongst other things, worth it IMO)
Ravish
To be exact, on Win7 it's in Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Personalization\Window Color and Appearance\Advanced....
Marcel