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21

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1

I am using Soft7 2.0 from DA (unsigned theme) and I'm using the UxStyle service to load it.

Most applications adjust their UI just fine, but not WPF apps.

How can I make WPF apps also use the Soft7 UI? I'm not looking to force a certain theme on WPF, I just want it to use the current Windows theme.

I'm running Windows 7 x64.

+1  A: 

WPF and Win32 are very different technologies, which is why it is so easy to port WPF to new operating systems: It has practically no reliance on Win32.

When it comes to custom themes, WPF templates completely changes the ballgame: Custom themes in WPF are much more powerful but also very different from Win32. This means that theme vendors must implement their theme for both Win32 and WPF.

If system theme includes both a Win32 and a WPF DLL, all you need to do is make sure the WPF DLL is in your application directory or in the GAC. WPF will automatically load it and use it based on the registered theme name. Installing a theme on the system that includes a WPF DLL should automatically register it in the GAC.

If the theme includes only Win32 code and doesn't include any WPF templates, the only way to get the same look and feel from WPF is to code your own templates to match those in the theme. Fortunately this is very easy to do.

Ray Burns
This does answer my question (+1). I can only find 1 dll (shellstyle.dll) in the theme folder. But as I said, I don't want to use 1 specific style so recreating the theme is not really an option.Also, even the standard Aero theme only seems to use 1 dll. So how does that work? Can I just ask the artist to update his theme?
Bloodsplatter
In the GAC you will find PresentationFramework.Aero.dll, which is the Aero theme for WPF. The artist would have to create a similar DLL and register it in the GAC.
Ray Burns