How to draw a close button like Visual Studio?

Question

Visual Studio's windows have a close button (as well as other frame controls) that blend into the caption color and appear like so:

I was wondering if there's an accepted way of drawing controls like that. Do controls like these use DrawFrameControl or DrawThemeBackground, or do they use another approach altogether?

Thank you for any information.

Answer 1

There are two approaches for creating custom buttons using Win32 API:

1. Draw the control yourself. This is very complicated and requires a lot of knowledge about Win32 controls. Here are some links to get you started:

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/controls/user-controls-intro
• https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/646482/Custom-Controls-in-Win-API-Control-Customization
• Owner-drawn button, WM_CTLCOLORBTN and WM_DRAWITEM (clearing an HDC)

2. Modify an existing control using SubclassWindow. This is much easier, but in most cases very limited.

For example you can use a static control and handle mouse activity for it. You can also use multiple controls and show and move them as needed.

There is no set way of doing this since it's custom logic. But here are some links:

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/controls/window-controls
• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/inputdev/mouse-input
• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/inputdev/wm-mousemove