Why doesn't style-setting of the window background work?

Question

Here is the App.xaml:

<Application>
<Application.Resources>
    <ResourceDictionary>
        <Style TargetType="Window">
            <Setter Property="SnapsToDevicePixels" Value="True"/>
            <Setter Property="Background" Value="{DynamicResource {x:Static SystemColors.ControlBrushKey}}"/>
        </Style>
    </ResourceDictionary>
</Application.Resources>
</Application>

I also have the MainWindow.xaml. When viewed in Design mode in VS, it's background is, indeed, gray, as it should be. Anyway, when application is running, the window's background is default white.

Why?

How to fix this? I want all windows to have the standard background by default.

score 20 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 01 '11 at 17:33

20

The problem is during runtime, the type of your window will be MainWindow, not Window. Implicit Styles are not applied to derived types of the TargetType. So your Style won't be applied.

During design time, you are designing your MainWindow, but I suspect it creates a Window as the basis.

You'd need to change the type to match your window's type.

answered Aug 01 '11 at 17:33

CodeNaked

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Thank you! The fact that it works in the design view is confusing. – Mikhail Orlov Aug 03 '11 at 14:01

score 15 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:46

Following up on the answer from CodeNaked, you'll have to create a Style for every Window you have, but you can use the same style for all of them with BasedOn like this

<Application.Resources>
    <ResourceDictionary>
        <Style TargetType="Window">
            <Setter Property="SnapsToDevicePixels" Value="True"/>
            <Setter Property="Background" Value="{DynamicResource {x:Static SystemColors.ControlBrushKey}}"/>
        </Style>
        <Style TargetType="{x:Type local:MainWindow}"
               BasedOn="{StaticResource {x:Type Window}}"/>
        <Style TargetType="{x:Type local:SomeOtherWindow}"
               BasedOn="{StaticResource {x:Type Window}}"/>
        <!-- Add more Windows here... -->
    </ResourceDictionary>
</Application.Resources

Why doesn't style-setting of the window background work?

2 Answers2

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