Visual Studio Express Theme (VSExpress 2010)

[ludamo]

VSExpress 2010 Theme Editor

When compiling Notepad++ version 6.7.5 I had to move from VSExpress 2008 to 2010 (I am on XPSP3 so don't think I can go any higher), which fortunately compiled it OK. Starting to look at VS a little closer I realized that the theme editor extension for VS 2010 (not express) was not available for VSExpress. After searching a bit I found this: http://www.vbdotnetforums.com/showthrea ... 10-Express
which helped a lot, but I wanted to tweak the theme just a little bit more. So I have constructed a spreadsheet in Excel 2007 which can edit the theme colors and then export a registry file, which when merged will give VSExpress 2010 the new theme.

Unfortunately most of the color keys in the spreadsheet give little clue as to what they are referring to. I have worked out the two I was interested in, i.e. AutoHideResizeGripKey = Toolbar Background and PanelSeparatorKey = Menubar Background but will leave it to others if they are interested to work out others or if anyone knows where this information might be found already.

After opening the spreadsheet go to the Add-Ins button to find the macros and edit the colors and then export the file, which can be imported to re-edit if necessary. If you don’t have Excel 2007 then I have included the macro code separately, which could be imported into 2003 format I guess.

The registry file comes out for VCExpress but if you want to theme VBExpress etc just change the registry file to point to VBExpress instead of VCExpress or change the code in VBA.

[joedf]

a screenshot would be nice

[ludamo]

3 screenshots showing 1) Default theme if no registry key has been written. 2) Theme if <UseDebugColorScheme> Key name is written but no binary data value. 3) Custom theme with <VSColors> binary data key written to registry.

[joedf]

Interesting

[bgq]

I Just write this to thank you. It works perfectly
I spend a lot of time trying to solve theme problem until I found this page.
Thanks a lot.