Notification area flyout link area

Question

I made a flyout window in the notification area using WinAPI and my goal was to make it similar to the flyout windows that show up when you click some of the icons in the notification area, like the Volume icon.

I already succeeded in making it look and behave similar to the other ones, but there is one thing I can't seem to figure out. The link area of the flyout windows has a darker blueish background and there is a subtle difference in the look between Windows 7 and Windows 8. A picture of it in Windows 7 can be seen here

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa511448.aspx#flyouts

I achieved this by painting this link area of my flyout window manually in the right colors (including the gradient at the topmost part of the section) using the WM_PAINT message, but I just feel like it's too much of a hack, especially because it's not affected by changing themes in Windows. For example, if I set the "Windows Classic" theme this area should be grey and not blue.

So, my question is, am I missing something in how this can be achieved without painting the window manually. I noticed that the details pane in Explorer windows in Win 7 has the same look. I've searched quite a bit for answers but I haven't found anything yet. This is my first time doing a GUI using the WinAPI so I have very little experience, and therefore I'm assuming there is something that I just don't know about.

UPDATE:

I did manage to figure out how to draw this area without painting it manually. It can be drawn by using the OpenThemeData and DrawThemeBackground functions

HTHEME aeroTheme = OpenThemeData(hWnd, L"FLYOUT");
DrawThemeBackground(aeroTheme, hdc, FLYOUT_LINKAREA, 0, &rect, &rect);

This obviously only works when themes are enabled, so for non-themed cases I draw a normal rectangle with the appropriate color.

Answer 1

I'm not an expert in WinAPI so I can't offer any advice on achieving the look you want without manual painting.

However, if you're successfully achieving the appearance for a particular color theme, I'd suggest you look at the GetSysColor function and use this when creating your brushes for painting. This should allow you to get the correct colors based on the theme that has been set. More info (including a swatch table) can be found here.

Hope this helps.