How to disable highlighting on listbox but keep selection?

Asked 3/12, 2010 at 8:44 Answered 18/1, 2023 at 11:2

I am having trouble finding how to not allow my ListBox to highlight the item selected. I know that I didn't add a trigger to highlight the item.

<ListBox Name="CartItems" ItemsSource="{Binding}"
         ItemTemplate="{StaticResource TicketTemplate}" 
         Grid.Row="3" Grid.ColumnSpan="9" Background="Transparent"
         BorderBrush="Transparent">
</ListBox>

Reisfield answered 3/12, 2010 at 8:44 Comment(0)

Late answer, but there's a much better and simpler solution:

<ListBox>
   <ListBox.Resources>
      <SolidColorBrush x:Key="{x:Static SystemColors.HighlightBrushKey}" Color="Transparent" />
      <SolidColorBrush x:Key="{x:Static SystemColors.HighlightTextBrushKey}" Color="Black" />
      <SolidColorBrush x:Key="{x:Static SystemColors.ControlBrushKey}" Color="Transparent" />  
   </ListBox.Resources>
</ListBox>

This allows you to have a LisBox that looks just like an itemscontrol, but has support for selection.

Edit: How it works
This alters "colors of the system", in other words your windows theme, only for this ListBox and its children (we actually want to target the ListboxItem).

For example hovering a ListboxItem usually gives it a deep blue background, but here we set it to transparent (HighlightBrushKey).

Edit (30 June 2016):
It seems for latest Windows version this is not enough anymore, you also need to redefine InactiveSelectionHighlightBrushKey

<SolidColorBrush x:Key="{x:Static SystemColors.InactiveSelectionHighlightBrushKey}" Color="Transparent" />

Thanks to @packoman in the comments

Strega answered 23/1, 2012 at 16:44 Comment(10)

Hello, can you please explain to me how this works exactly? It has me pretty confused because I thought that all you were doing was defining solidcolorbrushes to be used later in the listbox, not doing any actual changes with that code snippet. – Niedersachsen 19/8, 2013 at 1:37

@ClementHoang I added an explanation. – Strega 19/8, 2013 at 7:44

x:Static doesn't work with windows store apps, is there's a replacement for that? – Neotype 9/2, 2014 at 9:25

But, still, if I'd set focus on other element, I can see selection. :/ – Highkey 19/12, 2014 at 14:55

This does not work for me, see this question. Any idea? – Habitant 29/6, 2016 at 6:58

@cheeesus sorry I haven't been programming WPF in years – Strega 29/6, 2016 at 18:8

@Baboon You might consider updating your answer. I was having the same problem as Mateusz Dembski, in that if the ListBox is not focused you will see the gray highlighting of selected items. The solution for this seems to be adding <SolidColorBrush x:Key="{x:Static SystemColors.InactiveSelectionHighlightBrushKey}" Color="Transparent" /> to the lines from your answer. Though I did not exhaustively test it yet ... Got it from here: #38042516 – Nanettenani 30/6, 2016 at 9:26

This did not work, even with the edit added. I had an ItemContainerStyle set which probably causes this not to work. – Conductor 9/4, 2017 at 17:19

Does this override any future styles you apply on IsSelected? – Leix 11/8, 2017 at 4:2

Doesn't work on Windows 10. At least not when targeting .NET 6. Those dreaded blue colors keep coming... – Inconspicuous 1/2, 2022 at 16:39

        <ListBox.ItemContainerStyle>
            <Style TargetType="ListBoxItem">
                <Setter Property="IsSelected" Value="{Binding Content.IsSelected, Mode=TwoWay, RelativeSource={RelativeSource Self}}"/>
                <Setter Property="Template">
                    <Setter.Value>
                        <ControlTemplate TargetType="ListBoxItem">
                            <ContentPresenter/>
                        </ControlTemplate>
                    </Setter.Value>
                </Setter>
            </Style>
        </ListBox.ItemContainerStyle>

Semipalatinsk answered 15/4, 2015 at 20:38 Comment(4)

The answer by @Baboon doesn't work in WIndows Phone 8.1 - this one does. Great. – Comminate 7/10, 2015 at 19:25

This answers works if you already has defined ListBox.ItemContainerStyle – Serg 13/10, 2015 at 21:51

I have been searching through most of the answers out there with no luck. This was the ONLY solution that worked for me with a list box item template. – Nadeau 21/12, 2016 at 17:4

What the IsSelected setter suppose to do here? I've removed it and it seams to work the same way, although I'm not selecting anything but just have a list of custom buttons. – Lattie 6/2 at 3:21

Late answer, but there's a much better and simpler solution:

<ListBox>
   <ListBox.Resources>
      <SolidColorBrush x:Key="{x:Static SystemColors.HighlightBrushKey}" Color="Transparent" />
      <SolidColorBrush x:Key="{x:Static SystemColors.HighlightTextBrushKey}" Color="Black" />
      <SolidColorBrush x:Key="{x:Static SystemColors.ControlBrushKey}" Color="Transparent" />  
   </ListBox.Resources>
</ListBox>

This allows you to have a LisBox that looks just like an itemscontrol, but has support for selection.

Edit: How it works
This alters "colors of the system", in other words your windows theme, only for this ListBox and its children (we actually want to target the ListboxItem).

For example hovering a ListboxItem usually gives it a deep blue background, but here we set it to transparent (HighlightBrushKey).

Edit (30 June 2016):
It seems for latest Windows version this is not enough anymore, you also need to redefine InactiveSelectionHighlightBrushKey

<SolidColorBrush x:Key="{x:Static SystemColors.InactiveSelectionHighlightBrushKey}" Color="Transparent" />