colorNormal properties are ignored

Q: Why, in XP, are some form object's colorNormal properties being ignored?

A: The XP manifest file is used to have your form objects look like the new XP common controls. Because of this, pushbuttons; rectangles; notebooks and possibly other objects have their color settings all or partially overwridden.

The pushbutton has a property called systemTheme which when set to false (the default is true) will ignore the manifest file and use the old common controls thereby allowing the color settings to show.

A wishlist request - QAID 1682 was submitted regarding this issue for other form objects like Rectangle, Notebook and others.
We hope to include a new property to ‘ignore’ the XP common control look for these objects as well.

In the meantime there is one workaround….

You can disable the XP manifest file by renaming or deleting it.
goto C:\Program Files\dBASE\Plus\BIN\ …. rename plus.exe.manifest to plus.exe.manifestX

Also, disable using the XP manifest file for a runtime app (.exe) …
goto C:\Program Files\dBASE\Plus\Runtime\ … rename plusrun.exe.manifest to plusrun.exe.manifestX

Of course this will also guarantee that any form objects will have the non-XP look.