How to left align window title in Windows 8 / 2012?

Question

Is there a way to (intrinsically) left align window title in Windows 8 or 2012 machine?

The Window's title in Window 8 or 2012 is horizontally center-aligned.

We have a WPF application that is ported to Windows 8 / 2012 machine. We are testing it along with couple of our clients and the clients need the title of the window to be left aligned as it was in Window 7 or XP.

I know we can do this using ControlTemplate in WPF but that would be too much for this little thing.

I am sure this is question is going to come up as more applications are ported to Windows 8 / 2012.

Is there any quick solution to this? Or do you know if Microsoft is going to give this flexibility in final releases of Windows 8 or 2012?

Answer 1

It is the default behavior of Windows 8, so it isn't advised.

ALTHOUGH Visual Studio 2012 left-aligns the titles, so it is possible, however inconsistent it may be.

It's doubtful Microsoft will offer up how to override the default functionality or change it since it is already RTM. This may help you get some of the way.

Answer 2

All window titles in Windows 8 are center aligned. Forcing an application title to be left aligned in Windows 8 would be almost like forcing the minimize and maximize buttons to show up on the left side of the window.

You may be able to accomplish this using a custom draw window like DXWindow from DevExpress. See this post:

http://www.devexpress.com/Support/Center/p/Q298641.aspx

However, the application will appear out of place on Windows 8 and may not pass desktop application certification.