first you forgot the : after each case. second it doesn't seem to catch when the leftmousdown or mouseup. i even tried just making it popup a msgbox when it was clicked rather than setting the pic. that didn't work either. my button is WS_CHILD. it doesn't work. i got the picture to be painted on my button but like i said it won't catch the mouse events. what could be wrong ? if u would like i'll send u the code. but i'm not a beginner. well i am to bitblt. but not to c++ win32.