Drawing Check Box and Radio controls on a CDialogEx for Dark Mode (Win32)

Question

If I switch off the theme for my checkbox / radio controls with:

SetWindowTheme(hControl, L" ", L" ");

I then get the text colours as I would like, but the actual check / radio symbols are drawn differently:

If I don't switch off the theme, then the checkbox / radio are drawn as they should be, but the text is black:

And, using OntCtlColor in the dialog has no affect on those controls:

inline void ApplyDarkModeColors(CDC* pDC, CWnd* pControl, UINT nCtlColor)
	{
		switch (nCtlColor)
		{
		case CTLCOLOR_STATIC: // Static text
			pDC->SetTextColor(darkTextColor);
			pDC->SetBkColor(darkBkColor);
			break;
		case CTLCOLOR_DLG: // Dialog background
		case CTLCOLOR_SCROLLBAR: // Scrollbars
		case CTLCOLOR_EDIT: // Edit control
		case CTLCOLOR_LISTBOX: // Listbox
		case CTLCOLOR_MSGBOX:
			pDC->SetTextColor(darkTextColor);
			pDC->SetBkColor(darkBkControlColor);
			break;
		case CTLCOLOR_BTN: // Buttons
		default:
			// You can add specific cases here if needed
			break;
		}
	}

What I would like to achieve is a combination of the 2:

• The themed symbols
• The lighter text

How can I achieve this? Please note that this is a CDialogEx based application so I can't use any code that requires underlying frame functionality.

Answer 1

With themed controls, you can change text colors with Custom Draw

Test in C++/Win32 with a RadioButton with ID = 12 by changing text color to red and keeping Button theme on Windows 10 :

case WM_NOTIFY:
{
	LRESULT lResult = 0;
	switch (((NMHDR*)lParam)->code)
	{
	case NM_CUSTOMDRAW:
	{
		if (12 == ((NMHDR*)lParam)->idFrom)
		{
			NMHDR* pnm = (LPNMHDR)lParam;				
			lResult = OnCustomDraw(((NMHDR*)lParam)->hwndFrom, (LPNMCUSTOMDRAW)pnm);
		}
	}
	break;
	default:
		return FALSE;
	}
	return lResult;
}
break;


LRESULT OnCustomDraw(HWND hWnd, __inout NMCUSTOMDRAW* pNMCD)
{
	LRESULT lResult = CDRF_DODEFAULT;
	switch (pNMCD->dwDrawStage)
	{
	case CDDS_PREPAINT:
	{
		SetBkMode(pNMCD->hdc, TRANSPARENT);
		SetTextColor(pNMCD->hdc, RGB(255, 0, 0));
	
		SIZE sizeCheckBox;
		HTHEME hTheme = OpenThemeData(NULL, TEXT("Button"));
		HRESULT hr = GetThemePartSize(hTheme, pNMCD->hdc, BP_CHECKBOX, CBS_UNCHECKEDNORMAL, NULL, TS_DRAW, &sizeCheckBox);
		CloseThemeData(hTheme);

		SIZE sizeExtent;
		GetTextExtentPoint32(pNMCD->hdc, TEXT("0"), 1, &sizeExtent);
		int nShift = sizeExtent.cx / 2;
			
		RECT rc = pNMCD->rc;
		OffsetRect(&rc, sizeCheckBox.cx + nShift, 0);

		WCHAR wszText[MAX_PATH];
		GetWindowText(hWnd, wszText, MAX_PATH);
		DrawText(pNMCD->hdc, wszText, -1, &rc, DT_LEFT | DT_VCENTER | DT_SINGLELINE | DT_EXPANDTABS | DT_END_ELLIPSIS);
		lResult = CDRF_SKIPDEFAULT;
	}
	break;	
	}
	return lResult;
}