Glass.Message 1.0.4

🪟 Glass.Message

The modern MessageBox replacement for .NET WinForms — Windows 11 ready, zero migration cost.

Mica & Acrylic backdrops · automatic dark/light theming · fluent builder API · async/await dialogs · inline text & password inputs · activity-aware live progress bars · toast notifications · per-monitor DPI · full RTL support.

Why Glass.Message?

System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox hasn't changed since Windows XP. It ignores dark mode, ignores your monitor's DPI, can't be awaited, and looks out of place on Windows 10/11. Glass.Message replaces it with a single type-name change — the Show(...) overloads are 100% signature-compatible and still return DialogResult.

// Before — flat grey dialog, blocks the thread, ignores dark mode
MessageBox.Show("Save failed. The file is in use by another process.",
    "Save Error", MessageBoxButtons.RetryCancel, MessageBoxIcon.Error);

// After — same one-liner, now modern, themed, DPI-aware, animated
GlassMessage.Show("Save failed. The file is in use by another process.",
    "Save Error", MessageBoxIcon.Error);

No new dependencies. No additional configuration. Works on .NET Framework 4.8.1 and .NET 8 / 9 / 10.

Install

dotnet add package Glass.Message

Feature comparison

Quick start

using Glass;
using System.Windows.Forms;

// Optional — set once at startup (e.g. in Program.cs or Form_Load)
GlassMessage.UseRoundedCorners = true;                    // Windows 11 rounded corners
GlassMessage.DefaultTheme      = GlassTheme.AutoDetect(); // follow the OS light / dark theme
GlassMessage.PlaySystemSounds  = true;                    // match classic MessageBox behaviour

// Drop-in replacement (same signature, same DialogResult)
DialogResult result = GlassMessage.Show(
    "Your changes have been saved.", "Success", MessageBoxIcon.Information);

Examples

Custom buttons + fluent builder

var r = GlassMessage.Create("Annual_Report_Q4.xlsx has unsaved changes.")
    .Title("Unsaved Changes")
    .Icon(MessageBoxIcon.Warning)
    .Buttons("Save", "Don't Save", "Cancel")
    .Show();

Text / password input

// Text input with a checkbox
var r = GlassMessage.Create("Enter a new name for this folder.")
    .Title("Rename")
    .InputText("Folder name", "Client Projects")
    .CheckBox("Apply to sub-folders")
    .Buttons("Rename", "Cancel")
    .ShowEx();

if (r.Button == DialogResult.OK)
    RenameFolder(r.InputText, applyRecursive: r.CheckBoxChecked);

// Password input (masked, with reveal-eye toggle and Caps Lock hint)
var r = GlassMessage.Create("Enter your vault password to continue.")
    .Title("Authentication Required")
    .Icon(MessageBoxIcon.Shield)
    .InputPassword("Password")
    .Buttons("Unlock", "Cancel")
    .ShowEx();

Async dialogs with CancellationToken

// Non-blocking — the UI stays responsive while the dialog is open
var choice = await GlassMessage.ShowAsync(
    "Push local changes to origin/main?", "Sync",
    MessageBoxIcon.Question, MessageBoxButtons.OKCancel);

// Cancellable from code — e.g. session timeout after 30 s
using var cts = new CancellationTokenSource(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(30));
var result = await GlassMessage.Create("Confirm deployment to production?")
    .Title("Deploy")
    .Icon(MessageBoxIcon.Warning)
    .Buttons("Deploy Now", "Cancel")
    .ShowAsync(cts.Token);

Live progress dialog (activity-aware)

The bar can animate to match the operation — Upload, Download, Sync, Compress, and more — and you can switch the activity live as the work moves between phases:

var ctrl = GlassMessage.Create("Uploading files to cloud storage…")
    .Title("Upload")
    .Progress(0, 100)
    .ProgressActivity(GlassProgressActivity.Upload)   // glowing packets flow →
    .Buttons("Cancel")
    .ShowProgress();

for (int i = 0; i <= 100; i += 10)
{
    if (ctrl.WasCanceledByUser) break;
    ctrl.SetValue(i);
    ctrl.SetMessage($"Uploading file {i / 10 + 1} of 10…");
    await Task.Delay(500);
}
ctrl.Complete();
await ctrl.Completion;

Toast notifications

// Fire-and-forget, bottom-right corner, auto-dismiss after 4 s
GlassToast.Show("Invoice #1042 saved to SharePoint.", "Upload Complete",
    MessageBoxIcon.Information);

// Awaitable toast — continues after the notification disappears
await GlassToast.ShowAsync(new GlassToastOptions
{
    Title     = "Build finished",
    Message   = "Release x64 completed in 4.2 s.",
    Icon      = MessageBoxIcon.None,
    Position  = ToastPosition.TopRight,
    DurationMs = 6_000,
    OnClick   = () => OpenBuildLog(),
});

Theming

Five built-in presets — pick one or build your own:

Target frameworks & platforms

AnyCPU — runs in both x86 and x64 processes.
Windows-only (WinForms). No third-party runtime dependencies.

Documentation & links

• 📖 Full docs, gallery & API reference: https://github.com/gcfernando/glass
• 📜 Changelog: https://github.com/gcfernando/glass/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md
• ⬇️ Releases & pre-built binaries: https://github.com/gcfernando/glass/releases
• 🐛 Issues & feature requests: https://github.com/gcfernando/glass/issues

MIT Licensed · © 2026 Gehan Fernando
Keywords: WinForms MessageBox replacement, Windows Forms modern dialog, dark mode dialog .NET, Windows 11 Mica dialog, Acrylic WinForms, async MessageBox C#, WinForms toast notification, DPI-aware dialog, WinForms progress dialog, WinForms input dialog, WinForms password dialog, themed dialog WinForms, GlassMessage, Glass.Message