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I need to set the background color of an editable combobox in code. This is what I have but does not change the color:

        ComboBox comboBox = sender as ComboBox;
        comboBox.Background = Brushes.PeachPuff;
        if (comboBox.IsEditable == true)
            TextBox textBox = (TextBox)comboBox.Template.FindName("PART_EditableTextBox", comboBox);
            if (textBox != null)
                textBox.Background = Brushes.PeachPuff;
I was expecting the background color to change to PeachPuff (light orange) but nothing happens - any ideas?
Changing the combobox's background using the background property only use to work in Win7 and older, in windows 8 and above the default template for the ComboBox has been changed, to fix that you should edit the default template, 
using VisualStudio 2013 or Blend, Right Click the combobox and choose EditTemplate > Edit a Copy :
In the generated Xaml search for <ControlTemplate TargetType="{x:Type ToggleButton}"> and replace the {StaticResource ComboBox.Static.Background} markup with a TemplateBinding to the Background property, your code should look like this after the update :
  <Setter Property="Template">
        <Setter.Value>
            <ControlTemplate TargetType="{x:Type ToggleButton}">
                <Border x:Name="templateRoot" BorderBrush="{StaticResource ComboBox.Static.Border}" BorderThickness="{TemplateBinding BorderThickness}" Background="{TemplateBinding Background}" SnapsToDevicePixels="true">
                    <Border x:Name="splitBorder" BorderBrush="Transparent" BorderThickness="1" HorizontalAlignment="Right" Margin="0" SnapsToDevicePixels="true" Width="{DynamicResource {x:Static SystemParameters.VerticalScrollBarWidthKey}}">
                        <Path x:Name="arrow" Data="F1 M 0,0 L 2.667,2.66665 L 5.3334,0 L 5.3334,-1.78168 L 2.6667,0.88501 L0,-1.78168 L0,0 Z" Fill="{StaticResource ComboBox.Static.Glyph}" HorizontalAlignment="Center" Margin="0" VerticalAlignment="Center"/>
                    </Border>
                </Border>
                <ControlTemplate.Triggers>
                    <MultiDataTrigger>
Now, you can use the Background property to change the Combobox color:
  <ComboBox IsEditable="True" x:Name="EditableComboBox" Background="PeachPuff" VerticalAlignment="Center" HorizontalAlignment="Center" Width="200" Style="{DynamicResource ComboBoxStyle1}" >
  </ComboBox>
</Grid>
                But I have managed to change the background color of a combo box in windows 8 and above by just using combobox,backgrounf. it works for all combos OTHER than combos which have the the "isEditable" set to true. That's what the code above tries to do (i.e. get the textbox) portion and set the background but it doesn't do anything. I really need to do this in code as well and NOT in XAML/ Anyone have any ideas?
– Hamish Redmond
                Aug 24, 2015 at 23:48
        
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