76. How do I add a manifest to a VC6 application?
A manifest is a set of meta-information about your application. Manifests are
important when it comes to getting your application visually themed under
XP, and more important still in the brave new world of Vista. If you're using a
flavour of VS.Net, they directly support manifest
resources. But what if you're using VC6? Fortunately, there is a way that
VC6 can be persuaded to apply a manifest.
First of all, create your manifest file. This is simply an XML text
file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<assembly
xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1"
manifestVersion="1.0">
<assemblyIdentity
name="MyApplicationName"
processorArchitecture="x86"
version="5.1.0.0"
type="win32"/>
<description> My System </description>
<dependency>
<dependentAssembly>
<assemblyIdentity
type="win32"
name="Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls"
version="6.0.0.0"
processorArchitecture="x86"
publicKeyToken="6595b64144ccf1df"
language="*"/>
</dependentAssembly>
</dependency>
</assembly>
Remember to change the MyApplicationName and My System entries to something more appropriate. It's
not strictly necessary for theming purposes, but doubtless Vista will have its
own traps waiting if you don't. Now go to your project resources, select
Insert~Resource from the menu, and press the custom button. When you're asked
for a resource type, enter 24. Insert the XML given above into the resource, then
rename the resource to have the ID 1. I also change the stored filename to manifest.bin,
just to make it obvious what's going on.
Now rebuild your application, and you have a manifest resource. If your application
wasn't themed before, it should be now.
