Google Chrome / Windows 7 effect on WPF?

Question

Hey guys.. Windows 7 windows naturally have a semi-transparent header. What I just realized is that Google Chrome TabBar blends with this effect as if the TabBar background and the window header was the same thing! pretty much cool!

Is there a way to have the same result with WPF? Any example?

Thanks.

Answer 1

You would need to call down to the Desktop Window Manager APIs. See DwmExtendFrameIntoClientArea, or DwmEnableBlurBehindWindow to apply the glass effect only to a specific region. Use new WindowInteropHelper(myWindow).Handle to get the HWND for passing to these APIs.

Answer 2

See http://blogs.msdn.com/wpfsdk/archive/2008/09/08/custom-window-chrome-in-wpf.aspx for code samples for this and almost every other effect you can find in Vista/Office2007