CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#vb.netvisual-studiosilverlight
iAteABug_And_iLiked_it
iAteABug_And_iLiked_it

Reputation: 3795

Style my .Net desktop application GUI with Silverlight/windows phone-style controls

I am writing my first vb.net application ( But I will tag c# here as well, as I am sure even a c# person can answer this with the similar .net implementation).

Short Description of my Applicaiton:

My desktop application will run on win platform only, using vb.net, it is a simple internet cafe management software, with a server gui running on server, and a client gui running on workstations, both communicating with TCP/IP to allocate time to customers, and the server storing some data in either xml files ( for human operators login info e.g) or in a small database. Nothing complicated.

What I would like to do:

I'd like to have a "sexy" look, i.e. either silverlight look or win7 phone look, yet this is a desktop application. I'd like to use CSS but its entirely optional, if there is a simple way to have my controls look like below without CSS thats fine with me.

Look & Feel Example

What I have tried

I have looked into just doing a silverlight out of browser app, but as I am new to .net, and even though I have read up as many articles about using silverlight5 out of browser, I don't want to be caught down the road when I want to implement a feature and realize "Oh silverlight out of box doesnt support that".

So my question is , how do I implement one of the new looks in the picture in my desktop vb app?

Upvotes: 4

Views: 2839

Answers (2)

Daniel Wardin
Daniel Wardin

Reputation: 1858

You should look at using WPF for your application instead of using WinForms.

WPF (Windows Presentation Foundations) is a platform which works same way as silverlight but on desktop (as far as you need to be aware now.) Silverlight is a cut down version of WPF so WPF will give you a lot more controls and a lot more control over the program.

WPF uses XAML to draw up the UI and it holds the code in the source code file associated to the xaml file. If you have experience using Silverlight you should easily be able to make programs with WPF.

WPF is really powerful and gives you access to all the styling that is possible on Silverlight. WinForms is more so restricted which makes it harder to abandon the consistent Windows look and make your own intuitive and innovative UI.

Hope it helps!

Here are some tutorials if you are interested:

WPF Tutorials

Here is an example WPF desktop app (exact same look as achievable with Silverlight)

WPF App I found in Google Images

Upvotes: 4

mohamedHabib
mohamedHabib

Reputation: 196

You can use wpf with Mahapps Metro : http://mahapps.com/MahApps.Metro/

Upvotes: 2

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