Better ListView: Alternative list view control for .NET

• Better ListView is a list view control for .NET Windows Forms
• Designed as a replacement for the regular .NET list view control.
• Compatible with: Visual Studio 2015, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2005, with full designer support.
• For C#, Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), managed C++, and other CLI languages.
• Compatible with .NET 4.5, .NET 4, .NET 3.5, .NET 3, .NET 2, and newer. Supports .NET Client Profile.
• Runs on Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, 2003, XP, 2000, and newer, both 32-bit and 64-bit.
• Better ListView has more features and flexibility, always uses the current system theme (including Aero support), and removes limitations of the regular .NET list view control.
• Minimum learning needed. Better ListView can be used just like the regular list view.
• Written in pure managed C# code. It is fast, light-weight and optimized for 10k+ items.
• Easy royalty-free deployment. Single DLL file that has just 250kB when compressed.
• The assembly is FIPS-compliant, CLS-compliant, digitally signed and strongly named.
• Tested in the real world by thousands of users.

Extra features summary

Better ListView is fast and flicker-free, supports hierarchical items, has improved grouping, better drag & drop and item reordering support, better column headers, inbuilt sorting, multi-column sorting, better images support, context menus for column headers and items, embedded controls for editing support, automatic and custom sizing of items and images, thumbnails view, richer event data, item text formatting, XML and binary serialization, data-binding, owner-drawing options, better tooltips, powerful hit-test, improved usability, easy saving/loading of contents into file or string, multi-line items, and more.

Hierarchical items

You can create tree-like structures in Better ListView; inbuilt drag & drop hierarchical reordering of items.

Improved grouping

Better grouping – customizable group headers look and behavior, collapsible, image support, context menu support, focusable, etc. Each group header can be customized individually.

Save/load contents with 1 line of code

You can save or load the contents of Better ListView in just 1 line of code, either to file or string. Both XML and binary serialization is supported.

Double-buffered and flicker free

Simply put, Better ListView is smooth. Regular listview requires multiple anti-flicker techniques, but you do not have to worry about that with Better ListView. Better ListView is optimized for 100k+ items.

Column header images

You can use images in column headers. Custom image sizes are supported.

Sub-item images

You can set images to list view sub-items. Regular list view allows you to set only one image per list view item, but Better ListView can show image for every sub-item (in every column).

Multi-column sorting

You can sort by multiple columns in Better ListView. Simply shift+click a secondary (or third, etc) column to add it to the current sort. Zero code needed.

Inbuilt sorting and natural sorting

Better ListView has inbuilt list view sorting that works out of the box. You no longer need to implement your own item comparer.

Thumbnails view mode

Better ListView supports additional "thumbnails" view mode that allows you to view images of large sizes. The images are automatically and smoothly resized with preserved aspect ratio.

Checkboxes in all views

You can have checkboxes in LargeIcons view, SmallIcons view, List view, Thumbnails view and of course also in the Details view.

Three state checkboxes

Three state checkboxes are supported in Better ListView.

Powerful list view tooltips

You can display tooltips for nearly any part of Better ListView - tooltips for items, sub-items, checkboxes, item images, sub-item images, column headers, column header images, and even for custom areas.

XML and binary serialization of everything

Every part of Better ListView (items, sub-items, column headers) can be both binary and XML serialized.

Owner drawing

Better ListView allows you to draw over the client area, items and column headers. Contrary to .NET ListView, owner drawing is fully operational even when the system uses Aero theme.

Multi-line items

Better ListView supports multi-line items. Items with very long text can be displayed on multiple lines. Highly customizable and powerful.

Background image support

Display background image in Better ListView easily using the BackgroundImage property. Many layouts (stretch, tile, none), alignments, and customizable opacity are supported.

Context menu for column headers, list items, and empty area

Better ListView supports 3 types of context menus: Column header context menu, list view items context menu, and empty area context menu.

Embed controls for item editing

Inbuilt in-line editing support includes label edit, combobox edit, date picker edit. You can also embed any custom control for in-line editing. Sub-item editing is supported.

Customizable search-by-typing

Better ListView has excellent customization functionality for find-as-you-type item searching. The search modes include: Prefix, Substring, Prefix + Substring, or Disabled.

Display text when the list view is empty

You can display a gray text centered in the list view if it's empty to hint or educate users. This will make your software more user friendly.

More advantages of our improved list view component:

• Developer friendly: All classes and properties are as similar to the regular list view as possible. Everything is intuitive, very little learning is needed. Save time and ship sooner.
• Better ListView has improved usability and fixed behavior. Better ListView mimics behavior and look & feel of the Windows Explorer list view to leverage the existing user knowledge.
• Guaranteed support and continued development: Better ListView is developed as a joint-venture of two software companies that use Better ListView in their main products.
• Tested in real world applications by thousands of users: Because Better ListView is used in professional consumer desktop software applications, thousands of users work with Better ListView every day.
• Better ListView does not inherit from the regular .NET list view. It is written in pure managed C# code and is flexible, light weight, and fast.