Looking for Fancy windows forms [closed]

Question

Are there any ready made fancy windows forms on top of which I can build my application?

I was able to find only one working so far..However,the titlebar and stuff don't maximize on double click and some functionalities of traditional windows forms are missing.

I'm looking for an extended windows forms with good looks.

Do you know any libraries that can help produce good looking windows forms?

Please provide me any links ..

Thank you.

Answer 1

I know this is probably not the answer that anyone asking this type of question wants to hear, but it's absolutely the answer that they need to hear. The problems with the implementation that you note in your question are exactly the kinds of problems that run rampant with this type of thing.

Any time that you go about changing the look and feel of standard Windows controls (and especially something as complicated as forms), you're bound to run into problems. There are all kinds of behaviors that users come to expect because they've been a part of the way Windows works since the very beginning. Some of them are big and obvious, and others are minor and trivial. Trivial, that is, until you try to use them out of habit and find that they don't work.

This is the reason that users get frustrated with things like custom themed or "skinned" applications. Personally, I all but refuse to use them, and I'm not the only I know who feels that way, from power users to grandmothers. They don't help you to work more productively, and in fact, they often hamper exactly that. And it's hardly worth putting up with the compromise because most skins just don't look all that good in the first place, especially not to the subjective aesthetic preferences of individual users. For example, you might skin your application in a nice-looking blue color. But what if I hate blue with a passion? I'm not going to be very happy when I'm using your app, no matter how beautiful you/your designer think it is. What you call "fancy", others might call anywhere from "distasteful" to downright "ugly".

By far the best option is to let the user choose the application's theme. And you don't even need to build a theming system into your application in order to allow for this. Windows has allowed users to customize their system theme since the very beginning. It started out as simply the ability to change the colors used for all on-screen elements, and it's evolved through Windows XP and beyond to a full-fledged theming engine. Stick with it, and resist the urge to tinker. Making your app stick out like a sore thumb is not a good thing here. You want to blend in with the rest of the apps on the user's computer. Familiarity translates directly to ease-of-use and enhanced user experience. It also means less tech support is required from your company to support your software that you just had to make look different.

You just don't get enough value out of this to justify the problems, limitations, and support nightmares. Focus on making your app work better, rather than just look better. Users really appreciate that far more, even if they won't admit it. The best changes are the ones that no one ever notices.

Answer 2

Commercial Options

Telerik is debatably the best out there right now, and they put a lot of money into supporting the community by sponsoring podcasts.

DevExpress is comparable. They have a lot of skins and I've had good experiences with them in the past.

Both of them have WinForms packages that come in at $799.

Nevron UI ($169) and DotNetBar ($264) are also options. But you get what you pay for, and some of the free options below are worth looking at before spending money on these.

Free Options

WPF is Microsoft's next-gen presentation framework, and it is extremely powerful. It all the features you're looking for and more, although there is a substantial learning curve.

Krypton gets the job done and it's free. It's mature, easy to use, and they continue to updated it. Plus it has a bunch of built-in skins, including some good Office-style skins. I will say that next to WPF it's looking dated. But that goes for most everything.

Answer 3

You can use DevExpress, which has a great selection of skins.

Answer 4

If you are looking for a good library to make your forms look good, I would suggest the Telerik suite for WinForms:

http://www.telerik.com/products/winforms.aspx

They look amazing, even if they are WinForms.

Answer 5

I have used DevExpress for some WinForms projects: http://www.devexpress.com/

It costs $$, but if you absolutely have to use WinForms for your project I have found it to come in very handy the controls are pretty easy to implement and use.