Ever seen how programs designed for XP can have the xp theme that u have currently running? Well due to the fact VB6 wasn't designed for making XP programs (due to the fact it was for 95/98 at the time). So heres how it can be done two ways First Way: Exe.Manifest This is the easier way of making themes to work on your program. For this example.. put a command button or two on the new project exe you started place the follow declarations in: Option Explicit Private Declare Function InitCommonControls Lib "comctl32.dll" () As Long This is declaring function for xp themes Now to ensure this works, we need to make the program enable this by putting in code in the Form_Initialize event Private Sub Form_Initialize() InitCommonControls End Sub And for the command button click event put: Private Sub Command1_Click() Unload Me End Sub Ok now you can't see anything new if u run it in the IDE(intergrated development enviroment) so compile an exe to the desktop. Now if u run it it won't work.. why u say. because we haven't made the manifest file. Simply open up notepad and input the following lines: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?> <assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0"> <assemblyIdentity type="win32" processorArchitecture="*" version="6.0.0.0" name="mash"/> <description>Enter your Description Here</description> <dependency> <dependentAssembly> <assemblyIdentity type="win32" name="Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls" version="6.0.0.0" language="*" processorArchitecture="*" publicKeyToken="6595b64144ccf1df" /> </dependentAssembly> </dependency> </assembly> Save this file in the same directory as the exe and call it yourprogramname.exe.manifest Now run and u'll find it will have taken the XP theme Questions, comments etc are welcome