TBitBtn displays only using legacy Windows theme

Question

I created the manifest file for my Delphi 6 application so it can display controls according to the theme defined by Windows (controls 6.0). Everything looks fine, except TBitBtn component, which is displayed using the legacy theme:

The behavior is the same on Windows XP and Windows 7, regardless of the current theme, even when no image is assigned to the TBitBtn component.

Now, when I put a regular TButton component on a form, it displays OK. If I then programmatically set an image to this button in runtime (using SendMessage(Handle, BM_SETIMAGE, IMAGE_ICON, LPARAM(Icon))), it immediately reverts its style to the legacy one.

Is there a way to either make TBitBtn use a proper style, or to display glyph on a regular TButton without reverting to the legacy one in Delphi 6?

Answer 1

In Delphi 6 it is not enough just to add the comctl32 v6 manifest. You also need to modify the VCL to be theme aware. The TBitBtn control is a VCL implemented control that, in its Delphi 6 incarnation, does not know anything about XP themes.

The standard way to deal with this is to add some third party software that performs the magic. That's the XP theme manager from Mike Lischke.

Here's a screenshot from a Delphi 6 application that includes the theme manager: