Windows 11: difference of Lister and TC menu marker in Light mode

The behaviour described in the bug report is either by design, or would be far too complex/time-consuming to be changed

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Slavic
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Windows 11: difference of Lister and TC menu marker in Light mode

Post by *Slavic »

TC has two drop-down menus in the main TC window and Lister. Their look changes according Light or Dark app theme (or in the TC menu Сonfiguration). However, main TC window and Lister apparently use the different menu styles by default. It's noticeable by menu marker: in default TC it's light blue, in Lister it uses a Windows style. In Windows 8.1 the difference isn't very noticeable.

However, in current Windows 11 the default menu marker for Win32 apps is implemented quite poorly. Marker is grey and only slightly greyish than menu rectangle in the light mode; the dark mode isn't implemented for Windows 11 "native" Win32 components like Notepad. Dark TC correctly switches its menu, Lister menu looks almost the same; the menu marker in both cases is blue and clearly visible. But in the Light mode TC menu uses its own style while Lister switches back to Windows default.

Lister should use the same menu style as TC in Dark (as now) and Light modes. TC light menu style is much better than Windows 11 default.
Desktop: Windows 11 Pro 23H2, TC 11.03(RC). Mobile: Pixel 5a, Android 14, TC 3.42b5
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Usher
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Re: Windows 11: difference of Lister and TC menu marker in Light mode

Post by *Usher »

It's more complicated.

Settings for UI styles/themes/compositions are hidden in more than one place in Windows, see this topic:
https://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=45220&p=351069#p351069

In general, some theme elements are missing in TC main window, some other are missing in Lister window.
For example, when you set Windows XP theme background for TC in standard mode, it works OK in TC main window, but Lister looks more like classic theme.

In dark mode TC redraws UI on your own for Windows older than Windows 10. That's why the look is more unified and consistent.
Unfortunately, some bugs are also consistent ;-) For example, in dark mode there is no "Close" [X] button on modal messages. Just switch to dark mode, try to delete any file (with confirmation turned on, of course) and watch the message with no "Close" button. Then try F4 for any directory, then F3, F4, F5, F6, F8 for [..] <UP-DIR>.
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Re: Windows 11: difference of Lister and TC menu marker in Light mode

Post by *ghisler(Author) »

The menu look depends on whether it's owner drawn (like the TC main menu or lister context menu) or drawn by Windows like the file context menu. Unfortunately there is almost no documentation how to do this for Win32 programs, so you will never get 100% consistent looks.
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Re: Windows 11: difference of Lister and TC menu marker in Light mode

Post by *Slavic »

Couple of screens of Lister in Windows 11 Pro 22000.120, which has been released yesterday.

Dark mode Image: https://prnt.sc/1jr9o77
Light mode Image: https://prnt.sc/1jralg7

Developers made some changes in menu for classic Win32 apps like Notepad or user-installed programs: the menu marker in the light mode is not much more bright and contrast, but its height is too small (I guess it's a result of unfinished improvements). As for Lister, these screens show the problem after switch from Dark to Light mode.

As mentioned before, Lister menu is not entirely custom, unlike TC menu, but half-custom. It is custom in Dark mode, but in normal Light mode it uses some settings of Windows theme. Currently it doesn't have rounded corners as in Notepad's menu (custom shape uses traditional rectangle), but it uses the Windows theme marker, which is narrow in current Windows 11 beta.

Another problem is, in Dark mode the Lister menu doesn't have the left column - place for menu icons, while Light menu follows Windows theme and has this column. When we open Lister in Dark mode and then switch to Light using TC menu Dark<>Normal, the Lister menu becomes jammed. The width of menu rectangle remains the same, but menu text shifts right to free the space for icons column, so text of menu items overlaps the keyboard combinations. This bug is clearly visible on the second screenshot.
Desktop: Windows 11 Pro 23H2, TC 11.03(RC). Mobile: Pixel 5a, Android 14, TC 3.42b5
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