How to Remove White Background from Wix Button and Checkbox Property?

Question

i am trying to make an installer. Thw checkBox and button i have added has a white background. how can i get rid of those white spaces?

   <Control Id="DesktopShortcutCheckBox"  Type="CheckBox" X="80" Y="200" Width="290" Height="17" Property="INSTALLDESKTOPSHORTCUT" 
             CheckBoxValue="1" Text="Create a shortcut for this program on the desktop." />

 <Control Id="Back" Type="PushButton" Text="Back" X="215"  Y="243"  Width="60" Height="17">
      <Publish Event="NewDialog"  Value="SecondDlg" />
    </Control>

thnx

Answer 1

Unfortunately, the Windows Installer UI does not support transparent checkboxes. You have a few options:

1. Move the checkbox to a location that doesn't cover the background. For example, it is common to have a background in the install dialog, then a horizontal line at the bottom of the image then the buttons below the horizontal line. Putting the checkbox below the line with buttons looks good (looks standard) and can use the standard background color.

2. Make the checkbox control only as big as the checkbox itself then place static text next to the checkbox control with transparent background. This works but it means users must click the checkbox directly. Also, accelerator keys won't work which is an accessibility no-no. But it does look better.

3. Use an external UI handler to custom draw all your controls. This is easier with Burn in WiX v3.6+. The wixstdba UI can be customized using an XML "theme file". You can get a lot more custom UI than the standard Windows Installer UI supports.

It's all tradeoffs. Pick the one that works best for you.