Enable the drop shadow effect on a window (XP)

Author: Thomas Stutz

{

Question:

I saw some applications that override the default window behaviour in that

way that the window display a thin transparent shadow. How to do this?

Answer:

Override the CreateParams method of your form and add the

CS_DROPSHADOW flag to the WindowClass.Style.

CS_DROPSHADOW Enables the drop shadow effect on a window.

The effect is turned on and off through SPI_SETDROPSHADOW.

Typically, this is enabled for small, short-lived windows such as

menus to emphasize their Z order relationship to other windows.

}

type

TForm1 = class(TForm)

protected

procedure CreateParams(var Params: TCreateParams); override;

end;

var

Form1: TForm1;

implementation

{$R *.dfm}

procedure TForm1.CreateParams(var Params: TCreateParams);

const

CS_DROPSHADOW = $00020000;

begin

inherited;

Params.WindowClass.Style := Params.WindowClass.Style or CS_DROPSHADOW;

end;