AlphaBlending Form

Hi!!!
Can I mke a Form in VB 5 quite transparent?? I mean if behind of the form is the desktop can I see that with alphablending? And I don't want to take a picture of the thing behind of the form and put it as image of the form
for example can I see a clock behind the form running??
Thanks
Wolverine

Only if you have Windows 2000 (which supports translucant windows), otherwise you'll have to fake it, which about 99% of the time looks horrible and 102% which won't update what's behind it. :D

Btw, here's the code for Win2K, I haven't tested it yet, but it's copied straight from the API Guide, so it should work:

Code:

---

Const LWA_COLORKEY = &H1
Const LWA_ALPHA = &H2
Const GWL_EXSTYLE = (-20)
Const WS_EX_LAYERED = &H80000
Private Declare Function GetWindowLong Lib "user32" _
    Alias "GetWindowLongA" (ByVal hWnd As Long, _
    ByVal nIndex As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function SetWindowLong Lib "user32" _
    Alias "SetWindowLongA" (ByVal hWnd As Long, ByVal nIndex As Long, _
    ByVal dwNewLong As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function SetLayeredWindowAttributes Lib "user32" _
    (ByVal hWnd As Long, ByVal crKey As Long, ByVal bAlpha As Byte, _
    ByVal dwFlags As Long) As Long

Private Sub Form_Load()
    'KPD-Team 2000
    'URL: http://www.allapi.net/
    'E-Mail: [email protected]
    Dim Ret As Long
    'Set the window style To 'Layered'
    Ret = GetWindowLong(Me.hWnd, GWL_EXSTYLE)
    Ret = Ret Or WS_EX_LAYERED
    SetWindowLong Me.hWnd, GWL_EXSTYLE, Ret
    'Set the opacity of the layered window To 128
    SetLayeredWindowAttributes Me.hWnd, 0, 128, LWA_ALPHA
End Sub

---

Is there any way to use this code on mdichildren or on controls in your form. I want to have a form with an image on it and all the controls on top to be translucent so you can see the image.

Neither MDI children nor individual controls worked with my tests...

Is there any other way I can do this then?

Draw them yourself, but that's a lot of work...