The default Tree and List view controls in windows forms look rather dated. In an earlier post, I demonstrated just how easy it was to change the theme of the TreeView control and ListView controls so they look like Vista’s explorer.
The same code can be used to attain the Windows 7 Tree and List view controls look and feel.
Here I have a TreeView with an ImageList, and a ListView with an ImageList that has some large images, and am populating it when the form loads. If you would like to go further with the other controls (buttons etc.), there is a very good article on codeproject.com worth checking out.
Visual Basic (c# example beneath)
Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices
Public Class Form1
Private random As Random
Public Sub New()
Me.Font = System.Drawing.SystemFonts.IconTitleFont
InitializeComponent()
SetWindowTheme(treeView1.Handle, "explorer", Nothing)
SetWindowTheme(listView1.Handle, "explorer", Nothing)
Me.treeView1.HotTracking = True
Me.treeView1.FullRowSelect = True
End Sub
”’ <summary>
”’ Native interop method, be sure to include the System.Runtime.InteropServices
”’ name space
”’ </summary>
”’ <param name="hWnd"></param>
”’ <param name="appName"></param>
”’ <param name="partList"></param>
”’ <returns></returns>
<DllImport("uxtheme.dll", CharSet:=CharSet.Unicode, ExactSpelling:=True)> _
Private Shared Function SetWindowTheme(ByVal hWnd As IntPtr, ByVal appName As String, ByVal partList As String) As Integer
End Function
”’ <summary>
”’ Using an image collection in an ImageList component, fill the
”’ ListView control with 50 random images when the form loads
”’ </summary>
”’ <param name="sender"></param>
”’ <param name="e"></param>
Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
random = New Random()
Me.treeView1.ExpandAll()
Me.listView1.LargeImageList = Me.imageList2
Me.listView1.BeginUpdate()
For i As Integer = 0 To 49
Dim item As New ListViewItem()
item.ImageIndex = random.[Next](0, imageList2.Images.Count)
Dim name As String = DirectCast(item.Name, String)
item.Text = "Item " & name
Me.listView1.Items.Add(item)
Next
Me.listView1.EndUpdate()
End Sub
End Class
C#
using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
namespace WindowsSevenTreeViewAndListView
{
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
Random random;
public Form1()
{
this.Font = System.Drawing.SystemFonts.IconTitleFont;
InitializeComponent();
SetWindowTheme(treeView1.Handle, "explorer", null);
SetWindowTheme(listView1.Handle, "explorer", null);
this.treeView1.HotTracking = true;
this.treeView1.FullRowSelect = true;
}
/// <summary>
/// Native interop method, be sure to include the System.Runtime.InteropServices
/// name space
/// </summary>
/// <param name="hWnd"></param>
/// <param name="appName"></param>
/// <param name="partList"></param>
/// <returns></returns>
[DllImport("uxtheme.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode, ExactSpelling = true)]
private static extern int SetWindowTheme(IntPtr hWnd, string appName, string partList);
/// <summary>
/// Using an image collection in an ImageList component, fill the
/// ListView control with 50 random images when the form loads
/// </summary>
/// <param name="sender"></param>
/// <param name="e"></param>
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
random = new Random();
this.treeView1.ExpandAll();
this.listView1.LargeImageList = this.imageList2;
this.listView1.BeginUpdate();
for (int i = 0; i < 50; i++)
{
ListViewItem item = new ListViewItem();
item.ImageIndex = random.Next(0, imageList2.Images.Count);
string name = (string)item.Name;
item.Text = "Item " + name;
this.listView1.Items.Add(item);
}
this.listView1.EndUpdate();
}
}
}
Ira Lukhezo's blog 
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Thank You very mush for this code 🙂
HI,
The issue I am facing is that TreeView is populated fine, but on loast focus from the tree view the selected item is not correctly themed.. its having the back color and other properties just the same as other nodes and hence not able to distinguish between the Selected Node and non selected ones.
Thanks for this code………….