Traditionally, Windows applications are built upon the GDI/User windowing hierarchy, and thus restricted in several areas. While you can certainly generate a nice application quickly with the built-in control-set and get a standard clean look, you will soon enough stumble upon the limitations of the Windows controls - especially if you want to build something that looks a little more flashy. The native Win32 custom-draw/owner-draw technique is limited, next to no support for transparent windows, rigid control scaling/resizing and the Common Controls are merely remnants of Windows Explorer, Office or Internet Explorer widgets.

A windowless user-interface doesn't make use of the native Win32 controls. Instead it custom paints every control and widget on the screen - including labels, buttons, list control, etc. etc.

Windowless user-interface website ↗

We are inviting you to experiment with Windowless user-interface

Download and install Direct UI
Compile the library and samples
Share your experience

Our experiment outcomes are about to be published in members area.

Direct UI Experiment

Dynamic Draw Experiment

Win32++ Experiment