[magicalhippo]

> Win32 skinning is either making a control completely from scratch

In almost all cases you just need to handle the drawing yourself, and you get fairly broad access through the API to do so through the various non-client and client window messages.

Now, Windows has gained some newfangled components over the years with more or less integration, I'm thinking basic Win32 controls.

[badsectoracula]

What all cases? Windows (basic Win32 at that) provides a lot of controls like buttons, checkboxes, inputboxes, scrollbars, radiobuttons, comboboxes, listboxes, etc which do all their drawing themselves and you do not have any way to fully skin them (without hooking into undocumented stuff). Some controls allow for custom drawn elements but pretty much always that is just for the elements themselves, not the entire control.