Well I guess I should start by stating that YOU DON'T NEED TO EDIT YOUR PROGRAM'S CODE!

This is becuase theme support for EXE files is not actually in import statements, project components, or whatever, but through a file called a MANIFEST that tells Windows that it should use the Common Controls v6, which uses the new XP visual styles.

What's great is that the only thing that changes about a Manifest file is its name! The content of the file (which looks a bit like XML) is always the same.

You need to create a manifest file, and call it:
"[appname].manifest" and place it in the same directory as your EXE.

For details on how to create a manifest file, read on.

If you use M$ Visual studio .net, adding support to every program you make without having to actually copy and rename hundreds of manifest files is quite easy, although Microsoft make it seem hard.

You can create a Visual Studio .NET add-in to do this for you.

For all details on how to create a Manifest file, make the add-in, or anything else regarding this topic, simply go to http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnperfmo/html/xpthemeaddin.asp.

In addition to that, you can create a file:

%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe.manifest

This will let you use many of the XP-style controls right in the Form Designer. Just remember to change the FlatStyle to System for each control.