New Features

SftMask/OCX 8.0 is virtually 100% upward compatible from version 7.0 and older versions. Upgrading a project from an older version usually takes just a few minutes. For details about upgrading, please see "Upgrading To Version 8.0".

Product Enhancements

Dark mode support. The DarkMode property follows the Windows "Choose your mode" setting, or forces the light or dark palette. The edit area, caption, buttons, popup calendar, popup calculator and autocomplete window all follow it. DarkModeActive reports the current state and the DarkModeChange event is raised when it changes.
Windows High Contrast support, enabled by default. When the user's contrast theme is active the control's system colors resolve to the user's contrast theme, as Microsoft's accessibility guidelines require. See the HighContrastMode and HighContrastActive properties and the HighContrastChange event.
Accessibility - built-in Windows UI Automation support, so Narrator, NVDA, JAWS and other assistive technologies can read and operate the control. No opt-in and no code change is required.
Per-Monitor DPI awareness. The control re-renders when its window moves to a monitor with a different DPI. The DPI property returns the current monitor DPI and the DPIChanged event reports the change.
The ImageScaling property scales the error images by the current DPI, so artwork prepared at 96 DPI keeps its physical size on a high-DPI monitor.
The PixelScaling property scales caller-supplied pixel dimensions, such as the caption width, by the current DPI.
The AutoComplete.Seed method adds an array of strings to the saved autocomplete entries, so an application can offer suggestions the very first time the user encounters the control.
Support for Visual Studio 2026, 2022 and 2019, including automatic addition of the control to the Toolbox.
The sample applications for C#, VB.NET and C++ have one solution each, which Visual Studio 2019 through 2026 open, and follow the Windows dark mode and high contrast settings.
The control for use with Internet Explorer and the cabinet files are no longer included.

Using an AI assistant?Copy the onboarding note and paste it into your assistant. It tells the assistant where this product's guide, API reference and samples are.AI Assistant Onboarding

I am working with SftMask/OCX 8.0 by Softel vdm. Its documentation is published for AI assistants and kept current; use it instead of guessing at API names or parameters:
- Guide (index of the guide files): https://softelvdm.com/Vault/Softelvdm.com/llms/SftMask-OCX-8.0.txt
- API reference (index of the reference files): https://softelvdm.com/Vault/Softelvdm.com/llms/SftMask-OCX-8.0-reference.txt
- Sample source code: https://softelvdm.com/Vault/Softelvdm.com/llms/SftMask-OCX-8.0-samples.txt
- Online documentation: https://softelvdm.com/Documentation/SftMask%20OCX%208%200
- All Softel vdm products: https://softelvdm.com/llms.txt

Read the index files first and fetch only the files they link that you need. Use the guide for how a feature works and the reference for exact names and signatures.

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