How to Update Look and Feel of Older Windows User Interface?

Question

I have a really solid computer program that was written for Windows XP. The program still works great and I would like to update the look and feel of the user interface.

At this time, I would like to give the buttons etc. a more sleek, contemporary look. Much better would be to allow functionality of touch and swipe etc. for tablets and such.

Can anyone tell me what tools in Delphi are used to accomplish this? For instance, do I need to change every button and object manually through object inspector or can I update/modify all objects objects within a project using a single set of commands?

Answer 1

You can start by enabling Windows themes, using Project->Options->Appearance from the IDE's main menu. It's on by default since D2007, but won't be on because your app is coming from Delphi 5. (New projects have it turned on by default, but the IDE can't know if you want it enabled or not when importing older projects.)

You can then start looking at adding gesture support by looking into the documentation for TGestureManager and TGesture. There's a TGestureManager for both VCL and FireMonkey (FMX) applications.

Note that for cross-platform support (Android, iOS, and OS X) you'll need to port your application from the VCL to FMX.