Web 7.0 Mail — Web 7.0 Mail App

A C# Windows Forms sample application that faithfully recreates the Microsoft Outlook 2003 user interface using standard .NET Windows Forms controls. Originally authored by Microsoft (© 2004) as a demonstration of advanced WinForms rendering and layout techniques.

Overview

Web 7.0 Mail shows how to achieve the classic Outlook 2003 three-pane layout — navigation sidebar, message list, and reading pane — entirely with ToolStrip, DataGridView, TreeView, and custom owner-drawn controls. No third-party UI libraries are required.

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  HeaderStrip (large gradient title bar)                     │
├──────────────┬──────────────────────┬───────────────────────┤
│              │  MessageList         │                       │
│  FolderView  │  (DataGridView,      │   MessageArea         │
│  (TreeView   │   owner-drawn rows,  │   (reading pane,      │
│   w/ folder  │   read/unread icons) │    HTML body via      │
│   counts)    │                      │    WebBrowser)        │
├──────────────┴──────────────────────┴───────────────────────┤
│  StackStrip (Mail / Calendar / Contacts / Tasks buttons)    │
│  OverflowStrip (icon-only overflow items)                   │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  StatusBar — "All Folders are up to date." / Connected      │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Features

• Outlook 2003 visual fidelity — gradient toolbars, professional color table rendering, square-edged strips, grip dots on the splitter bar
• Resizable navigation sidebar — LeftSpine uses a SplitContainer whose splitter snaps to button-height increments; overflow items automatically appear/disappear as the panel is resized
• Live folder counts — FolderView renders Inbox unread count in green, Drafts and Deleted item counts in blue, using owner-drawn TreeView nodes that update in real time via INotifyPropertyChanged
• Multi-line message rows — MessageList custom-paints DataGridView cells to show sender on the first line and subject on the second, with unread messages in bold
• Read/unread state tracking — selecting a message in MessageList automatically marks it read and decrements the unread counter in the MessageStore and FolderView
• Sortable message list — backed by SortableBindingList<T> with a generic PropertyComparer<T>, sorted newest-first on startup
• Network connectivity detection — status bar updates live when the network comes or goes via NetworkChange.NetworkAvailabilityChanged
• System font awareness — all controls respond to UserPreferenceChanged and re-scale when the user changes the Windows icon title font

Project Structure

Web 7.0 Mail/
├── Web 7.0 Mail.sln
└── Web 7.0 Mail/
    ├── Program.cs                   # Entry point
    ├── MainForm.cs / .Designer.cs   # Application shell, status bar, network monitoring
    ├── Custom Controls/
    │   ├── BaseStackStrip.cs        # ToolStrip base — gradient background, professional renderer
    │   ├── StackStrip.cs            # Navigation button bar (radio-button semantics)
    │   ├── HeaderStrip.cs           # Title bar (Large = bold white on blue, Small = black)
    │   ├── LeftSpine.cs / .resx     # Left panel: FolderView + StackStrip + overflow
    │   ├── FolderView.cs / .resx    # Mail folder TreeView with live counts
    │   ├── MessageList.cs / .resx   # Email list DataGridView (owner-drawn)
    │   ├── MessageArea.cs / .resx   # Reading pane
    │   └── RightSpine.cs / .resx   # Right panel container
    ├── MailServer/
    │   ├── MailMessage.cs           # Email model (INotifyPropertyChanged)
    │   └── MessageStore.cs          # Singleton data store; loads Inbox.xml; SortableBindingList
    ├── Mail/
    │   ├── Inbox.xml                # Embedded XML message manifest
    │   └── *.htm                    # Individual email HTML bodies
    └── Properties/
        ├── AssemblyInfo.cs
        ├── Resources.Designer.cs    # Embedded bitmaps (Outlook icon, Read/Unread, toolbar images)
        └── Settings.Designer.cs

Key Classes

Class	Description
MainForm	Top-level form; wires up MessageStore, status bar, and network events
BaseStackStrip	Abstract ToolStrip subclass that installs a ToolStripProfessionalRenderer with custom gradient background painting
StackStrip	Extends BaseStackStrip with vertical layout and radio-button checked-state enforcement across ToolStripButton items
HeaderStrip	ToolStrip with AreaHeaderStyle.Large (bold white Arial on blue gradient) or Small (system font, dark text)
LeftSpine	UserControl combining FolderView, StackStrip, and an overflow strip in a SplitContainer; handles splitter snapping and overflow visibility
FolderView	Owner-drawn TreeView that annotates Inbox, Drafts, and Deleted Items nodes with live counts
MessageList	DataGridView in virtual mode; custom cell painting produces two-line rows with read/unread icon
MessageArea	Reading pane container
MailMessage	Plain data model — From, To, Cc, Subject, Read, SentDate, Path; implements INotifyPropertyChanged
MessageStore	Singleton; deserializes Inbox.xml from the embedded assembly resource; tracks SelectedMessage, UnreadCount, DraftsCount, DeletedCount
SortableBindingList<T>	BindingList<T> subclass that implements ApplySortCore via PropertyComparer<T>
PropertyComparer<T>	Generic IComparer<T> that sorts on any named property using reflection and IComparable

Requirements

• Windows (Win32)
• .NET Framework 4.0 or later
• Visual Studio 2005 or later (solution was originally created for VS 2005)

Building and Running

1. Open Web 7.0 Mail.sln in Visual Studio.
2. Build the solution (Ctrl+Shift+B).
3. Run (F5). The application launches directly into the Outlook-style inbox view.

No additional dependencies or NuGet packages are needed.

Background

This project was produced by Microsoft around 2004–2005 as a showcase for the Windows Forms 2.0 feature set introduced in .NET 2.0 — specifically ToolStrip, DataGridView, BindingSource, virtual-mode grid painting, and ToolStripProfessionalRenderer. It lives in the namespace System.Windows.Forms.Samples and was distributed as part of MSDN sample collections demonstrating how to build professional-quality Office-style applications without relying on COM interop or third-party controls.