c# - Change the borderColor of the TextBox

Question

How can I change the BorderColor of the Textbox when a user Clicks on it or focuses on it?

Answer 1

You can handle WM_NCPAINT message of TextBox and draw a border on the non-client area of control if the control has focus. You can use any color to draw border:

using System;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Windows.Forms;
public class ExTextBox : TextBox
{
    [DllImport("user32")]
    private static extern IntPtr GetWindowDC(IntPtr hwnd);
    private const int WM_NCPAINT = 0x85;
    protected override void WndProc(ref Message m)
    {
        base.WndProc(ref m);
        if (m.Msg == WM_NCPAINT && this.Focused)
        {
            var dc = GetWindowDC(Handle);
            using (Graphics g = Graphics.FromHdc(dc))
            {
                g.DrawRectangle(Pens.Red, 0, 0, Width - 1, Height - 1);
            }
        }
    }
}

Result

The painting of borders while the control is focused is completely flicker-free:

BorderColor property for TextBox

In the current post I just change the border color on focus. You can also add a BorderColor property to the control. Then you can change border-color based on your requirement at design-time or run-time. I've posted a more completed version of TextBox which has BorderColor property: in the following post:

• BorderColor property for TextBox