Windows Aero areas in own C# Applications

Question

I'm wondering about that many new applications, I think most built in WPF, has this really cool Windows Aero Glass interfaces.

For example Seesmic or the upcoming Firefox 3.7
_{(source: crenk.com)}

Searching in the internet most time it looks like you need a hack to realize this. But seriously: I don't think big software development teams use hacks to roll out their huge used products.

So my question is: Windows Aero Glass Areas - How to do?

Is it only possible with a hack?

Maybe it's just one property, i don't know. I'm WinForms developer so I never tested out WPF. But my Google search didn't look like It is easier with WPF.

Answer 1

To have Aero glass, you need to use the Desktop Window Manager. It is a Win32 DLL, so you need to P/Invoke it. Articles on how to do this are all over the Internet, ex. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/adam_nathan/archive/2006/05/04/589686.aspx Using P/Invoke is definitely not a hack.