How to change the WPF designer background color in VS 11?

Question

How do you change the background color of the WPF designer in Visual Studio 11?

In VS 2010 it was tied to Windows window color. On VS 11 it no longer is. I never liked that it was tied to the window color, but hopefully it is not hard coded now? Many of us have pages with transparent backgrounds that are added over a dark common background at runtime. Text and other objects are a light color and aren’t viewable with the default off white designer background.

Answer 1

 

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd547188(v=vs.110).aspx#BKMK_VSIDE   this link contains information about some of the important enhancements in Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview . is it helpful?

Answer 2

Unfortunately I can’t find any reference to changing the designer background color there. I would think with Microsoft changing from inheriting the Windows window color to something internal they would allow it to be changed. There just doesn’t seem to be any UI to do this.

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Scott Corn

Answer 3

Hi Scott,

I am trying to involve someone familiar with this topic to further look at this issue. There might be some time delay. Appreciate your patience.

Thank you for your understanding and support.

 

Best regards,

Lucy

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Lucy Liu [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us
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Answer 4

Thank you

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Scott Corn

Answer 5

Could you please try the below code?

txt1.Background = Brushes.Black; 
txt1.Foreground = Brushes.Red; 

Same will be for panel\img\table etc...

 

Answer 6

Sorry, you misunderstand. It doesn’t have anything to do with XAML or code. This is the actual designer background in the Visual Studio 11 IDE.

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Scott Corn

Answer 7

Hi Scott,

I did test and found the the background color of the WPF designer in VS 11 Developer Preview is still tied to Windows Window color. The color may not change at once when the Windows window color is changed. But if you close the solution and reopen it in Visual Studio, you will see the new backgroud color.

Thanks,
Carson

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