One of the requirements in a new project in VB is that 'it should good look'. Naturally the client doesn't have any clear idea about 'good looking apps' but wants it to look 'real good'. I can give it a XP style look using manifest, but I was wondering if there is any way to do better than that (but no third party controls, etc).
A couple of years ago, I saw a VB app at someone's place where the look of the app was quite different. For example, apart from the maximize, minimize & close buttons, rest of the title bar was invisible. The buttons were elliptical and colored, and some of the other controls too looked different. It was a VB app no doubt, it was running straight from the VB6 IDE, but the look was completely different. The person refusing to divulge the secret, answering my queries with a smug silence. A friend later suggested he was using something called a 'shell replacement', though what that is and other details he couldn't elaborate.
So does anyone have any experience or idea about creating 'good looking VB apps' ? No third party controls etc can be used. The app will run in different machines with different hardware/software configurations, so can't use any specialized stuff either.
