I'm not sure if this will be helpful but http://tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1042416&page=2 suggests that a call to InitCommonControls(Ex) is not required at all if you '... invisibly add a single control from Windows Common Controls to the first form that is to be made visible.' Could it be that the explicit call into Shell32 which you seem to require could also be avoided by trying that.