Manifest Files

9.2B

The implementation for the Windows OS manifest files allows change of the visual appearance of GUI objects to an XP flat-style. The manifest file data is formatted as an XML document. One usage of a manifest file is to allow older Windows programs to have the look of a newer Windows program without having to recompile a program.

For the Sunbelt runtimes, a manifest file changes the standard look of the GUI objects to appear with the Windows XP flat-style. To allow an external manifest file to change the runtime style, the manifest file name format must be set to 'runname.exe.manifest'. This specially named file must reside in the same directory as the runtime. The use of an external manifest as described in this paragraph may be used under Windows XP and some earlier OS versions. In this case, the external manifest is used in place of a embedded manifest data in a runtime executable.

Some Windows Vista configurations do not recognize an external manifest file. In these cases, the manifest must be embedded into the executable using Microsoft's manifest tool (mt.exe) which is part of the latest Windows Platform SDK (or Visual Studio 2003 or later). The sdk can be downloaded from Microsoft's web site (msdn.microsoft.com).

Please be aware that when using a manifest to enable the common controls 6 styles (themes), Microsoft documents that the behavior of some objects may change and that programs should be tested and appropriate modifications be made to them to compensate for the differences.

The following command line is an example that embeds a manifest file into an executable using version 5.2.3790.2075 of the Windows command 'mt.exe'.

mt.exe -manifest c:\sunbelt\plbwin.92\code\plbwin.exe.manifest

-outputresource:c:\sunbelt\plbwin.92\code\plbwin.exe;1

The following manifest file has the component definitions such that allow its use with the PLBNET, PLBWIN, PLBCLIENT, and PLBCLINET without having to be modified:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>

<assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0">

<dependency>

<dependentAssembly>

<assemblyIdentity type="win32"

name="Microsoft.VC80.CRT"

version="8.0.50608.0"

processorArchitecture="x86"

publicKeyToken="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b"></assemblyIdentity>

</dependentAssembly>

</dependency>

<dependency>

<dependentAssembly>

<assemblyIdentity type="win32"

name="Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls"

version="6.0.0.0"

processorArchitecture="x86"

publicKeyToken="6595b64144ccf1df"

language="*"></assemblyIdentity>

</dependentAssembly>

</dependency>

</assembly>