Changing Win32 menu colors

Question

Is there a way to change the colors used by plain Win32 menus (background, text, and highlight) for a single process, without using SetSysColors?

(SetSysColors does a global change, which is bad, and if you crash or forget to set the colors back with SetSysColors again before exiting, they will not be restored until you logout.)

Answer 1

The SetMenuInfo() API is your friend. It lets you apply any brush to paint your menu's background.

Something along these lines should solve your problem:

MENUINFO mi = { 0 }; 
mi.cbSize = sizeof(mi); 
mi.fMask = MIM_BACKGROUND|MIM_APPLYTOSUBMENUS; 
mi.hbrBack = hBrush; 

HMENU hMenu = ::GetMenu(hWnd); 
SetMenuInfo(hMenu, &mi);

Answer 2

I have to ask, why? Adopting the regular Windows look-and-feel is good; it means users can be confident that there are consistent elements in your user interface, onto which they can map their experience using other software for the platform.

[I'm probably preaching to the converted, of course, but I thought I'd make the point so anyone who reads an answer for this doesn't start making all their menus sky-blue-pink 'cause it looks pretty.]

Answer 3

If I believe your comment to Rob, it is for a skinned application, with special look and feel. So the way to go is probably indeed, as ferek points out (in an unfriendly way...) to use owner-drawn menus: you will be able to define precisely their look.