New Controls and Extensions with IE 4.0

Internet Explorer has upgraded the COMCTL32.DLL with some new controls and added a few extensions to existing controls. These changes are descibed in two Microsoft Systems Journal articles:

Previewing the New and Improved Common Controls DLL for Microsoft IE 4.0
Previewing the Common Controls DLL for Microsoft Internet Exlorer 4.0, Part II

These extensions are only available in newer versions of COMCTL32.DLL. The following lists the DLL version with the distribution method.

   Version  Distribution Platform
    4.00    Microsoft Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0
    4.70    Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.x
    4.71    Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0

I have also written a small forth program that will return the version of COMCTL32.DLL on the system. This shows how to determine the version from within an application. The version can also be viewed with the Version tab of the Properties sheet in Explorer (see below).

The particular example I played with was adding a MonthCalendar control. The code produces a calendar like the one shown below:

The Toolbar class can also be used to generate "flat" toolbars like those in the newer applications (see below). This is done by adding the following code to the example file:

TBSTYLE_FLAT +Style: tbar

The Progressbar class can now generate a smooth bar (see below). This is done by adding the following code to the example file:

PBS_SMOOTH +Style: progbar

Author: Jeff Kelm, (how to contact me)
URL: http://www.concentric.net/~jkelm/win32for/newcomctl32.htm
(Modified: 2005-01-09)