List-View Registry Settings

List-View controls in COMCTL32 versions 6.0 and higher have visual effects that are enabled by default but can be disabled in the registry. The settings are all in the following keys, listed in decreasing order of priority:

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

They have boolean data, by which it is meant that in addition to DWORD data evaluating as true if non-zero and false if zero, data is tolerated in various other types, most notably the case-insensitive strings yes, true and 1 for true and no, false and 0 for false.

The settings are read afresh for each newly created List-View control. They are re-read for an existing control when the control receives the WM_SETTINGCHANGED message. Since controls are usually created as child windows, a List-View typically will never receive any WM_SETTINGCHANGED message unless the message is forwarded from a parent window. Though Microsoft’s documentation makes a point of telling programmers to forward WM_SYSCOLORCHANGE from top-level windows to common controls, it seems to make no mention of any similar requirement regarding WM_SETTINGCHANGED. Yet the consequences of not forwarding either message are similar. Suppose for example that a user clears the “Use a background image for each folder type” setting while a List-View control shows a watermark. If the control’s parent forwards the WM_SETTINGCHANGED message, then the watermark disappears in accordance with the user’s wishes. Without forwarding, the watermark remains.

This setting has user-interface support through the System Properties in the Control Panel, as “Show translucent selection rectangle“ on the Visual Effects tab of the Performance Options dialog.

The scroll-over effect for tiled background images is disabled if ListviewScrollOver evaluates as false. No user-interface support is known for this setting.

This setting has user-interface support through the System Properties in the Control Panel, as “Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop“ on the Visual Effects tab of the Performance Options dialog.

Watermarks are disabled if ListviewWatermark evaluates as false. This setting has user-interface support through the System Properties in the Control Panel, as “Use a background image for each folder type“ on the Visual Effects tab of the Performance Options dialog.