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Is there an easy way to give the CExtToolBoxWnd control the (final) Visual Studio 2005 look (gradient group headers)?
Or are there any plans to implement this feature?

To change the background of any toolbox item, just override the following virtual method in your CExtToolBoxWnd-derived class:

void CExtToolBoxWnd::OnToolBoxWndEraseItem(
    CExtToolBoxWnd::TOOLBOX_ITEM_DATA * pTBCI,
    const CRect & rcItem,
    CDC & dc
    )

You can use the following code to detect whether the pTBCI parameter specifies a group caption item:

bool bGroupBackground = false;
TOOLBOX_ITEM_DATA * pTBCI_Parent =
    pTBCI->ItemGetNext( __TBCGN_PARENT );
    ASSERT( pTBCI_Parent );
    if( pTBCI_Parent->ItemGetNext( __TBCGN_PARENT ) == NULL )
        bGroupBackground = true;

So, if the bGroupBackground variable is true, then you should draw your custom gradient background using dc and rcItem. Otherwise, simply call the parent method.