Flickering image problems

I'm trying to replace my cursor with a gif file that uses transparencies. I don't want to use custom cursors or icons for reasons of being limited to the amount of colors or size of the custom cursor.

I have it working somewhat. However, my graphic is flickering and I need to know how to make it stop.

my code is below.


Module code:

Type POINTAPI
x As Long
y As Long
End Type

Declare Function GetCursorPos Lib "user32" _
(lpPoint As POINTAPI) As Long


Form code:

Option Explicit

Dim z As POINTAPI

Private Sub Timer1_Timer()
GetCursorPos z
imgHand.Left = z.x
imgHand.Top = z.y
End Sub


Any ideas on how to make it stop flickering? I don't have any experience with the bitblt command and don't know how to use it otherwise I'd probably use that route.

well, I have other problems also. The graphic is appearing under controls such as buttons. I need it to appear on top of them. Not sure how to do that.

VB Code:

Private Declare Function LockWindowUpdate Lib "user32"  (ByVal hWnd As Long) As Long
 
Private Sub LockWindow(lHandle As Long)
    LockWindowUpdate lHandle
End Sub
 
Private Sub UnlockWindow()
    LockWindowUpdate 0
End Sub
 
Private Sub Timer1_Timer() 
LockWindow(Form1.hWnd)
GetCursorPos z 
imgHand.Left = z.x 
imgHand.Top = z.y 
UnlockWindow
End Sub

Nope, that doesn't work either. The image still flickers and it doesn't appear on top of the other controls.

I think I'm going to end up using a regular cursor, which really sucks. I'd rather have the eye candy.

I did find some code using bitblt that worked great. Only problem with that code is that it caused the CPU utilization to run at 100% when the application was running. Can't have that.....