I have my current program disabling a tabControl on startup until a button is pressed. However I don't like the way that the tab looks when it is grayed out.
I want it to look just the same but still have it disabled. Is there a way that I can do this?
You'll need to draw the TabControl yourself to achieve this. Here's a tutorial on CodeProject.com. Unfortunately, it takes some time to achieve it but that's up to you of course.
Instead of drawing the TabControl yourself, maybe you could disable the controls on the TabPage instead?
If you're using WPF, you can use templates to customize your disabled style. Please see:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms754137.aspx
Notice the visual states for disabled controls, etc.