Prettying up .net winform apps??

[Punt]

I write a fair few apps for my company, all in c# winforms. All internal and usually log analysis bits and bobs for the higher ups.

They look ok, the usual windows type look, and tbh I go for functionality over aesthetics especially since they have a very small audience.

Now, my boss is a very style over content type person and has asked me to pretty up my apps. Not 100% sure what he wants but I guess bright colors, no borderlines around my controls and big pictures for buttons, etc. Essentially, kiddyfying my apps.

Is there anything out there you might recommend, if anything at all? Off the shelf would be great but don't mind putting a little bit of work in

 

[Dj_Jestar]

Refactoring to use wpf not an option?

 

[Punt]

Refactoring to use wpf not an option?

I'd heard of WPF but never looked at it. Just had a very quick play and so far... my mind is pretty blown!

I'll put some time aside and convert a current winforms app. Hopefully it'll handle our telephone system api ok, took me forever to get it working first time around and that's my main worry.

 

[Dj_Jestar]

The current state of your code will be the biggest factor in this refactoring cost. If you have a lot of the model tied up on the forms it's going to hurt moving to WPF, but if you have good separation it'll be easier (but still significant, I expect!)

 

[jsmoke]

I remember VB 6 had ActiveSkin, made quite a nice job, I am sure there will be similar for C#.

 

[dante671]

There's WinForms libraries such as this one by DevExpress though this particular one costs money, I know there's alternative libraries unsure if there'll be free options.

As others have suggested switching from WinForms to WPF is also a good option, and there's also the option to switch to an HTML UI though it'd be more work (personally I love HTML for UI development).

 

[Scotty123]

I used to do WinForms a bit. Then tried WPF, really liked the XAML markup with the databinding and MVVM pattern. Initially I tried to do the visuals from the code behind, but then I embraced the markup for design fully.

 

[Punt]

I've redone one of my smaller apps in wpf. There's a bit of a learning curve but it very much reminds me of when I developed some android apps, feels very familiar yet different. I shall persevere and try to put winforms behind me!

 

[Tbid]

Telerik just open sourced a bunch of previously premium controls for UWP, you have to be running Win 10 to use them though.