Are you making a WP7 application?  COOL!  Want to change the background, read on for the quick'n'dirty for how!

SO!  You want to change your ApplicationBar BackgroundColor, COOL!  I tried to do this in WP7 last year, but I wasn’t able to figure it out (ok, maybe it COULD be done, but I just hadn’t had enough coffee when I tried to figure it out?  That’s my excuse and I’m sticking with it! haha).  Well today I noticed Louis-Philippe Pinsonneault TechDays 2011 (Canada) WP7 application was doing exactly this, he changed the ApplicationBar BackgroundColor (notice the US spelling there?). 

Ok, so I thought, OH!  He got it to work, COOL!  So I can try it out on mine.  The good is, it can be done and it’s easy, just use this

<shell:ApplicationBar BackgroundColor="#57627E">

(Notice the US spelling of Color)  And then you’ll get this below.

Ok, so that’s the good news, you can do it!!!!  The bad news…it’s not bindable, you can’t use StaticResources.  DOH!  I have that shade of color setup in my App.XAML as a resource, but at this time, you can’t use StaticResources.  Don’t believe me?  Want to try it out?  (haha you and I think alike)  Here’s what VS gives you when you DO try it out.

 

So now that you know how to add one more cool element of colour (notice the CANADIAN spelling there HAHA) to your WP7, it’s time to grab a coffee and get coding!

 

Resources:

WP7 Marketplace: TechDays 2011 (Canada)

devlicious.us: Changing the Background and Foreground Colors for an Application Bar on WP7 by Derik Whittaker