GetSysColor Function

Declare Function GetSysColor Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal nIndex As Long) As Long

Platforms

Description & Usage

GetSysColor returns the RGB value of one of the system colors. The system colors are the ones Windows uses to draw the typical widgets in the graphical user interface. For example, this includes the colors of title bars, scroll bars, the desktop, window borders, etc.

Return Value

If successful, the function returns the RGB value of the requested system color. If an error occured, the function returns zero (use GetLastError to get the error code).

Visual Basic-Specific Issues

None.

Parameters

nIndex
One of the following flags specifying which system color to get:
COLOR_3DDKSHADOW
The dark shadow color for 3D objects.
COLOR_3DFACE, COLOR_BTNFACE
The face color for 3D objects.
COLOR_3DHILIGHT, COLOR_3DHIGHLIGHT, COLOR_BTNHILIGHT, COLOR_BTNHIGHLIGHT
The highlight (opposite of shadow) color for 3D objects.
COLOR_3DLIGHT
The light (opposite of shadow) color for 3D objects.
COLOR_3DSHADOW, COLOR_BTNSHADOW
The shadow color for 3D objects.
COLOR_ACTIVEBORDER
The active window border color.
COLOR_ACTIVECAPTION
The active window title bar color. Windows 98, 2000: The color of the left side of the active window title bar gradient, if the gradient effect is used.
COLOR_APPWORKSPACE
The background color of multiple document interface (MDI) windows.
COLOR_BACKGROUND, COLOR_DESKTOP
The desktop color.
COLOR_BTNTEXT
The text color for pushbuttons.
COLOR_CAPTIONTEXT
The color of window caption text, size boxes, and scroll bar arrow boxes.
COLOR_GRADIENTACTIVECAPTION
Windows 98, 2000: The color of the right side of the active window title bar gradient, if the gradient effect is used.
COLOR_GRADIENTINACTIVECAPTION
Windows 98, 2000: The color of the right side of an inactive window's title bar gradient, if the gradient effect is used.
COLOR_GRAYTEXT
The color for disabled (grayed-out) text.
COLOR_HIGHLIGHT
The color used to highlight selected items.
COLOR_HIGHLIGHTTEXT
The color used for the text of highlighted items.
COLOR_HOTLIGHT
Windows 98, 2000: The color of a hot-tracked item, which is executed with a single click.
COLOR_INACTIVEBORDER
The color of an inactive window's border.
COLOR_INACTIVECAPTION
The color of an inactive window's caption. Windows 98, 2000: The color of the right side of an inactive window's title bar gradient, if the gradient effect is used.
COLOR_INACTIVECAPTIONTEXT
The color of an inactive window's caption text.
COLOR_INFOBK
The background color for tooltop controls.
COLOR_INFOTEXT
The text color for tooltip controls.
COLOR_MENU
The background color of menus.
COLOR_MENUTEXT
The color of menu text.
COLOR_SCROLLBAR
The color of a scroll bar's gray area.
COLOR_WINDOW
The background color of a window.
COLOR_WINDOWFRAME
The color of a window frame.
COLOR_WINDOWTEXT
The color of text in a window.

Constant Definitions

Const COLOR_3DDKSHADOW = 21
Const COLOR_3DFACE = COLOR_BTNFACE
Const COLOR_3DHIGHLIGHT = COLOR_BTNHIGHLIGHT
Const COLOR_3DHILIGHT = COLOR_BTNHIGHLIGHT
Const COLOR_3DLIGHT = 22
Const COLOR_3DSHADOW = COLOR_BTNSHADOW
Const COLOR_ACTIVEBORDER = 10
Const COLOR_ACTIVECAPTION = 2
Const COLOR_APPWORKSPACE = 12
Const COLOR_BACKGROUND = 1
Const COLOR_BTNFACE = 15
Const COLOR_BTNHIGHLIGHT = 20
Const COLOR_BTNHILIGHT = COLOR_BTNHIGHLIGHT
Const COLOR_BTNSHADOW = 16
Const COLOR_BTNTEXT = 18
Const COLOR_CAPTIONTEXT = 9
Const COLOR_DESKTOP = COLOR_BACKGROUND
Const COLOR_GRADIENTACTIVECAPTION = 27
Const COLOR_GRADIENTINACTIVECAPTION = 28
Const COLOR_GRAYTEXT = 17
Const COLOR_HIGHLIGHT = 13
Const COLOR_HIGHLIGHTTEXT = 14
Const COLOR_HOTLIGHT = 26
Const COLOR_INACTIVEBORDER = 11
Const COLOR_INACTIVECAPTION = 3
Const COLOR_INACTIVECAPTIONTEXT = 19
Const COLOR_INFOBK = 24
Const COLOR_INFOTEXT = 23
Const COLOR_MENU = 4
Const COLOR_MENUTEXT = 7
Const COLOR_SCROLLBAR = 0
Const COLOR_WINDOW = 5
Const COLOR_WINDOWFRAME = 6
Const COLOR_WINDOWTEXT = 8

Example

Reverse the gradient colors in windows' title bars. In other words, the left-side gradient color is swapped with the right-side gradient color, for both active and inactive windows. Of course, this example won't work properly on Windows 95 or Windows NT 3.1 through 4.0, but you can still see how these two functions are used by looking at the source code.

This example runs when the user clicks command button Command1. So, to use this example, you must first place a command button named Command1 on a form window.

' This code is licensed according to the terms and conditions listed here.

' Declarations and such needed for the example:
' (Copy them to the (declarations) section of a module.)
Public Declare Function GetSysColor Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal nIndex As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function SetSysColors Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal cElements As Long, lpaElements As Long, _
	lpaRgbValues As Long) As Long
Public Const COLOR_ACTIVECAPTION = 2
Public Const COLOR_GRADIENTACTIVECAPTION = 27
Public Const COLOR_GRADIENTINACTIVECAPTION = 28
Public Const COLOR_INACTIVECAPTION = 3

' *** Place the following code inside a form window. ***

Private Sub Command1_Click()
	Dim activeLeftColor As Long     ' color of left-side gradient of active window title bar
	Dim activeRightColor As Long    ' color of right-side gradient of active window title bar
	Dim inactiveLeftColor As Long   ' color of the left-side gradient of inactive window title bar
	Dim inactiveRightColor As Long  ' color of the right-side gradient of inactive window title bar
	Dim colorNames(0 To 3) As Long  ' identifiers of the system colors to change
	Dim colorRGBs(0 To 3) As Long   ' RGB values of the system colors to change
	Dim retval As Long              ' generic return value
	
	' Get the RGB values of the colors used in title bars.
	activeLeftColor = GetSysColor(COLOR_ACTIVECAPTION)
	activeRightColor = GetSysColor(COLOR_GRADIENTACTIVECAPTION)
	
	inactiveLeftColor = GetSysColor(COLOR_INACTIVECAPTION)
	inactiveRightColor = GetSysColor(COLOR_GRADIENTINACTIVECAPTION)
	
	' Load the arrays with the new values to assign.  Note how we're switching
	' the values used on the left and right sides of the two gradients.
	colorNames(0) = COLOR_ACTIVECAPTION
	colorRGBs(0) = activeRightColor
	
	colorNames(1) = COLOR_GRADIENTACTIVECAPTION
	colorRGBs(1) = activeLeftColor
	
	colorNames(2) = COLOR_INACTIVECAPTION
	colorRGBs(2) = inactiveRightColor
	
	colorNames(3) = COLOR_GRADIENTINACTIVECAPTION
	colorRGBs(3) = inactiveLeftColor
	
	' Change the system color settings as specified above.
	retval = SetSysColors(4, colorNames(0), colorRGBs(0))
End Sub

See Also

SetSysColors

Category

System Information

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Last Modified: September 24, 2000
This page is copyright © 2000 Paul Kuliniewicz. Copyright Information Revised October 29, 2000
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