首先在MSDN裏Using Windows XP Visual Styles對Visual Styles的使用有詳細描述，特別是對我一直很迷惑的XPMan單元，有了解釋。在XPMan單元裏有很重要的一行，{$R WindowsXP.res}。裏面用XML描述了一些信息，結合msdn
| Attribute | Description |
|---|---|
| version | Version of the manifest. The version must be in the form major.minor.revision.build (that is, n.n.n.n, where n <=65535). |
| processorArchitecture | Processor for which your application is developed. |
| name | Includes company name, product name and application name. |
| type | Type of your application, such as Microsoft Win32. |
下面的表格是assemblyIdentity屬性區(The following table shows the attributes set by the assemblyIdentity element in the manifest description section)
| Attribute | Description |
|---|---|
| type | Type of the dependency component, such as Win32. |
| name | Name of the component. |
| version | Version of the component. |
| processorArchitecture | Processor that the component is designed for. |
| publicKeyToken | Key token used with this component. |
| language | Language of the component. |
這是MSDN的例子。
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0"><assemblyIdentity version="1.0.0.0" processorArchitecture="X86" name="CompanyName.ProductName.YourApplication" type="win32"/><description>Your application description here.</description><dependency> <dependentAssembly> <assemblyIdentity type="win32" name="Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls" version="6.0.0.0" processorArchitecture="X86" publicKeyToken="6595b64144ccf1df" language="*" /> </dependentAssembly></dependency></assembly>這是Delphi的WindowsXP.res裏的xml文件
<xml="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0"> <assemblyIdentity type="win32" name="DelphiApplication" version="1.0.0.0" processorArchitecture="*"/> <dependency> <dependentAssembly> <assemblyIdentity type="win32" name="Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls" version="6.0.0.0" publicKeyToken="6595b64144ccf1df" language="*" processorArchitecture="*"/> </dependentAssembly> </dependency></assembly>Delphi程序裏包含了WindowsXp.res，也就有了Visual Styles的風格。
Delphi還有一個包裝了uxTheme.dll的類，TThemeServices。
這方面csdn上出自《 Delphi 完全時尚手冊之 Visual Style 篇---使非標準 Win32 控件或自畫控件也具有 Windows XP 的界面風格》http://blog.csdn.net/happyjoe/archive/2003/05/13/8542.aspx的文章有比較詳細的描述。由於我也沒有實際用過，只是按照上文所述例子大概實驗了一下，所以不再做深入評論。
另外要注意的一小點是，XP系統必須使用Windows Xp樣式，在外觀裏選用的。ThemeServices.ThemesEnabled 才爲True。