Change A Form Background Color To The Desktop Color

The following sample code shows how to retrieve the system’s default background color. There are many other system colors you might like to know about. Here is a list of the Windows 3.1 system colors:

Global Const COLOR_SCROLLBAR = 0
Global Const COLOR_BACKGROUND = 1
Global Const COLOR_ACTIVECAPTION = 2
Global Const COLOR_INACTIVECAPTION = 3
Global Const COLOR_MENU = 4
Global Const COLOR_WINDOW = 5
Global Const COLOR_WINDOWFRAME = 6
Global Const COLOR_MENUTEXT = 7
Global Const COLOR_WINDOWTEXT = 8
Global Const COLOR_CAPTIONTEXT = 9
Global Const COLOR_ACTIVEBORDER = 10
Global Const COLOR_INACTIVEBORDER = 11
Global Const COLOR_APPWORKSPACE = 12
Global Const COLOR_HIGHLIGHT = 13
Global Const COLOR_HIGHLIGHTTEXT = 14
Global Const COLOR_BTNFACE = 15
Global Const COLOR_BTNSHADOW = 16
Global Const COLOR_GRAYTEXT = 17
Global Const COLOR_BTNTEXT = 18
Global Const COLOR_ENDCOLORS = COLOR_BTNTEXT

Declare The Following

Declare Function GetSysColor Lib "User" (ByVal nIndex%) As Long

Code

Sub ColorFormBackground(frmForm as Form)

     Const COLOR_BACKGROUND = 1 'Desktop

     frmForm.BackColor = GetSysColor(COLOR_BACKGROUND)

End Sub

Usage

Private Sub Form_Load()

     ColorFormBackground Me

End Sub

This tip is reprinted from the VB Tips & Tricks Volume 1 book.
Parts of this tip was submitted by: Jeff Williams
Compatible With Visual Basic 3.0, Visual Basic 4.0 16-bit
Applies To Forms