How to get the Computer's Accent Color

Question

Hello,

I am making a custom title bar and I want to make sure it is the same color as the accent color.  So I was wondering if there was anyway to get the computer's accent color.

Thx :P

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I am not tasty

Answer 1

I am making a custom title bar and I want to make sure it is the same color as the accent color.  So I was wondering if there was anyway to get the computer's accent color.

Is it one of these: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.drawing.systemcolors%28v=vs.110%29.aspx

Answer 2

Not quite what I am looking for.

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Answer 3

Not quite what I am looking for.

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I am not tasty

Yes, that is the list of system colors assigned at the Windows level.  That is where all forms and controls get their default colors from.  What you are calling "accent color" is probably known by another name (possibly GradientActiveCaption?).

The usage of each color is listed in the documentation.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.drawing.systemcolors?view=netframework-4.7.1

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Reed Kimble - "When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all"

Answer 4

No, Accent color is not a system color (from GetSysColor())

It is stored in the registry.

(HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM)

Answer 5

No, Accent color is not a system color (from GetSysColor())

It is stored in the registry.

(HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM)

How would i make that a panel's fore color

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Answer 6

How would i make that a panel's fore color

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You can use Immersive APIs =>

Dim colorSystemAccent As UInteger = GetImmersiveColorFromColorSetEx(GetImmersiveUserColorSetPreference(False, False), GetImmersiveColorTypeFromName(Marshal.StringToHGlobalUni("ImmersiveSystemAccent")), False, 0)
Dim colorAccent As System.Drawing.Color = System.Drawing.Color.FromArgb((&HFF000000 And colorSystemAccent) >> 24, &HFF And colorSystemAccent, (&HFF00 And colorSystemAccent) >> 8, (&HFF0000 And colorSystemAccent) >> 16)
' test back color
Me.BackColor = colorAccent

Declarations =>

<DllImport("Uxtheme.dll", SetLastError:=True, CharSet:=CharSet.Auto, EntryPoint:="#95")>
    Public Shared Function GetImmersiveColorFromColorSetEx(ByVal dwImmersiveColorSet As UInteger, ByVal dwImmersiveColorType As UInteger, ByVal bIgnoreHighContrast As Boolean, ByVal dwHighContrastCacheMode As UInteger) As UInteger
    End Function
<DllImport("Uxtheme.dll", SetLastError:=True, CharSet:=CharSet.Auto, EntryPoint:="#96")>
    Public Shared Function GetImmersiveColorTypeFromName(ByVal pName As IntPtr) As UInteger
    End Function
<DllImport("Uxtheme.dll", SetLastError:=True, CharSet:=CharSet.Auto, EntryPoint:="#98")>
    Public Shared Function GetImmersiveUserColorSetPreference(ByVal bForceCheckRegistry As Boolean, ByVal bSkipCheckOnFail As Boolean) As UInteger
    End Function

Answer 7

How would i make that a panel's fore color

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You can use Immersive APIs =>

Dim colorSystemAccent As UInteger = GetImmersiveColorFromColorSetEx(GetImmersiveUserColorSetPreference(False, False), GetImmersiveColorTypeFromName(Marshal.StringToHGlobalUni("ImmersiveSystemAccent")), False, 0)
Dim colorAccent As System.Drawing.Color = System.Drawing.Color.FromArgb((&HFF000000 And colorSystemAccent) >> 24, &HFF And colorSystemAccent, (&HFF00 And colorSystemAccent) >> 8, (&HFF0000 And colorSystemAccent) >> 16)
' test back color
Me.BackColor = colorAccent

Declarations =>

<DllImport("Uxtheme.dll", SetLastError:=True, CharSet:=CharSet.Auto, EntryPoint:="#95")>
    Public Shared Function GetImmersiveColorFromColorSetEx(ByVal dwImmersiveColorSet As UInteger, ByVal dwImmersiveColorType As UInteger, ByVal bIgnoreHighContrast As Boolean, ByVal dwHighContrastCacheMode As UInteger) As UInteger
    End Function
<DllImport("Uxtheme.dll", SetLastError:=True, CharSet:=CharSet.Auto, EntryPoint:="#96")>
    Public Shared Function GetImmersiveColorTypeFromName(ByVal pName As IntPtr) As UInteger
    End Function
<DllImport("Uxtheme.dll", SetLastError:=True, CharSet:=CharSet.Auto, EntryPoint:="#98")>
    Public Shared Function GetImmersiveUserColorSetPreference(ByVal bForceCheckRegistry As Boolean, ByVal bSkipCheckOnFail As Boolean) As UInteger
    End Function

Not working.

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I am not tasty

Answer 8

Hi Snowcone_65,

From this page, you can also see several other color settings there, such as "AccentColor" which is probably what you're looking for.

Hope it is helpful to you.

Best Regards,

Cherry

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Answer 9

Not working.

"Not working" doesn't help...

Is there an error ? at which line ?

 I tested on Windows 10 only (those colors did not exist on old OS) and it works on my PC.

Or if you don't want to use Immersive APIs, you can just read the color in the registry (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft \Windows\DWM\AccentColor) and convert it the same way from ARGB into a System.Drawing.Color

Answer 10

Ok so convert it like this

Dim AccentColor As System.Drawing.Color = System.Drawing.Color.FromArgb("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft \Windows\DWM\AccentColor")

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I am not tasty

Answer 11

Not working.

"Not working" doesn't help...

Is there an error ? at which line ?

 I tested on Windows 10 only (those colors did not exist on old OS) and it works on my PC.

Or if you don't want to use Immersive APIs, you can just read the color in the registry (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft \Windows\DWM\AccentColor) and convert it the same way from ARGB into a System.Drawing.Color

Yes there is an error for the DLLImport lines

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Answer 12

Yes there is an error for the DLLImport lines

Add at beginning :

Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices

Answer 13

Yes there is an error for the DLLImport lines

Add at beginning :

Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices

worked thx

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I am not tasty

Answer 14

I know I'm replying to an old thread, but this one just stymied me too, and none of the solutions I found online really worked for my particular situation - a Winforms project, in which I'm trying to minimize the number of undocumented calls.

In the end I used Castorix31's suggestion, and pulled the value from the Registry:

// Previously defined: Color _accent = System.Drawing.SystemColors.ActiveBorder;

try
   {
       using (RegistryKey key = Registry.CurrentUser.OpenSubKey("Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\DWM"))
           {
              if (key != null)
                    {
                        Object o = key.GetValue("AccentColor");
                        if (o != null)
                        {
                            _accent = Color.FromArgb(getARGB((int)o));
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
            catch (Exception ex)  
            {
               //couldn't read color - not a problem in this case, we already defined a default color
            }

Be aware though that the value stored there is in ABGR format (Alpha, Blue, Green, Red) - not the ARGB that is preferred by most Windows color functions. Specifically, Color.FromArgb(int i) - so i had to do some bit-swapping:

private int getARGB(int iABGR)
        {
            return
            ((iABGR >> 24) << 24) |          // alpha value stays where it is (top 8 bits)
            ((iABGR >> 16) & 0xFF) |         // red value moves to the next 8 bits
            ((iABGR >> 8) & 0xFF) << 8 |     // green value stays where it is
            ((iABGR) & 0xFF) << 16;          // blue value in the lowest 8 bits
        }

If you don't, then the color you end up with is invariably of a shade politely described as "manure".

Anyway, this is certainly not the neatest answer, BUT it worked for my specific situation and I thought I'd share it.