Is there a tool to identify a class in any window?

[e-t-l]

Related to #178, is there any tool (like WinSpy++ or ProcExp, etc) that can be used to identify the class of any part of a window of a win32 app?

My custom theme applies a global dark theme across most apps and dialogs, but some apps only get partially themed: for example, NVCleanstall still has a white background. Is it possible to identify and style this class, or is it hard-coded in the program?

[junkerderprovinz]

Spy++ and WinSpy++ only show the Win32 window class (for a WinForms app something like WindowsForms10.Window.8.app...), and that isn't the name a msstyles file uses. The theme class is the string the program passes to OpenThemeData or OpenThemeDataForDpi, for example Button or TreeView. To see it, start the app from API Monitor with those uxtheme functions selected and read the class names from the logged calls. If nothing is logged for the white area, the program paints that background itself (a WinForms BackColor, for instance), and no change to the msstyles file can reach it.

[e-t-l]

Thanks for the quick reply! Is there a way to tell if an app is Win32 vs WinForms? (I assumed NVCleanstall was Win32 but could be wrong)

To see it, start the app from API Monitor

Sorry, is API Monitor a separate app, a part of Windows, or a feature of MsstyleEditor?

[junkerderprovinz]

I checked NVCleanstall 1.19.0. It's a WPF app on .NET Framework 4.5.2: the exe references PresentationFramework and bundles Ookii.Dialogs.Wpf. The main window is still a Win32 window, but everything inside it is drawn by WPF from its own XAML templates, not by Win32 or WinForms controls. WPF reads the file name of the active theme through uxtheme and uses it to pick one of its built-in template sets (source). For a name it doesn't know, like Dark.msstyles, it falls back to its Classic set. So no msstyles class covers that area, and API Monitor won't show one for it.

What your theme can still reach is the system colors. Unless the app sets its own background, a WPF window is filled with the system Window color, and that comes from Sysmetrics > WINDOW in the msstyles. Changing it should reach NVCleanstall, but it also changes every other window and control that uses that color. I couldn't check whether NVCleanstall sets its own background, because its code is obfuscated. Sysmetrics changes don't show up with the Test button (#102); apply the theme through Personalization to see them.

To see what an app is built with, any of these works:

• Spy++ or WinSpy++: the class name gives it away. WindowsForms10.* is WinForms, HwndWrapper[...] is WPF, and names like Button, Edit or #32770 are plain Win32 controls and dialogs.
• Process Explorer: in the DLL view, System.Windows.Forms means WinForms and PresentationFramework means WPF.
• Detect It Easy reads the exe without running it and tells you whether it's .NET and what built it. Use the release links in their GitHub README; detectiteasy.com isn't theirs.

API Monitor is a separate free tool by rohitab, not part of Windows or msstyleEditor: http://www.rohitab.com/apimonitor. Use the 64-bit build for 64-bit programs and the 32-bit build for 32-bit ones (the 64-bit installer contains both). NVCleanstall runs as 64-bit on 64-bit Windows. msstyleEditor has nothing like it built in; its Test button only applies the style you're editing so you can check the result.

[e-t-l]

Awesome, thanks so much for the detailed answer! (and also for examining NVCleanstall for me, that was very generous!)

WPF reads the file name of the active theme through uxtheme and uses it to pick one of its built-in template sets (source). For a name it doesn't know, like Dark.msstyles, it falls back to its Classic set. So no msstyles class covers that area, and API Monitor won't show one for it.

Just to clarify, are you suggesting that if I renamed "Dark.msstyles" to the name of a default style, WPF would be able to apply a template set? (Would that even be useful? Or are there not any darkmode template sets?)