WPF - Restricting a Specific Windows Theme

In this post we will discuss how we can target our applications to a particular Windows Theme. We will be restricting it to Royale theme.

First we need to add a reference of PresentationFramework.Royale.dll. Right click References and select "Add Reference".



The assembly should be available in .net tab:



After selecting this should be available in References folder:



After adding the reference, we should merge the resources in App.xaml.

<ResourceDictionary>
    <ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
        <ResourceDictionary 
            Source="/PresentationFramework.Royale;component/themes/Royale.NormalColor.xaml"/>
    </ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
</ResourceDictionary>

Now we can design our views. The theme should be automatically applied to the controls used in the application.

<Window x:Class="WPFComboBoxEditable.Window10"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        xmlns:sys="clr-namespace:System;assembly=mscorlib"
    DataContext="{DynamicResource Data}"
    Title="Window7" >
    <Window.Resources>
        <x:Array x:Key="Data" Type="{x:Type sys:String}">
            <sys:String>First</sys:String>
            <sys:String>Second</sys:String>
            <sys:String>Third</sys:String>
        </x:Array>
    </Window.Resources>
    <Grid>
        <Grid.RowDefinitions>

            <RowDefinition Height="100" />
            <RowDefinition Height="100" />
            <RowDefinition Height="100" />
            <RowDefinition Height="*" />
        </Grid.RowDefinitions>
        <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
            <ColumnDefinition Width="*" />
            <ColumnDefinition Width="200" />
            <ColumnDefinition Width="*" />
        </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
        <TextBox Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="1"></TextBox>
        <Button Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="1">testttt</Button>
        <ComboBox Visibility="Visible" Grid.Column="1"
                  Name="comboBox1" ItemsSource="{Binding}"                   
                  Grid.Row="2">
            <ComboBox.SelectedIndex>-1</ComboBox.SelectedIndex>
        </ComboBox>
    </Grid>
</Window>

When we run the application, this should appear as follows:



Note:
If user personalize theme settings then those changes would also be updated to the application.