That's okayish and i'll do that if i have to but isn't there a way to get the picture? In my program vb's msgbox fits the bill perfectly. Another place where i'm killed on this is when i show a common dialog box. A msgbox can be drawn but a common dialog box is much more complicated and also i want the system by system capability of the cdb. I know that in your game a custom drawn msgbox works alright but this isn't a game, it's a very graphical water drainage editor. There are endless problems with autoredraw off, msgbox, cdb, modal forms, and the whole lot. Hopefully there's got to be a way to preserve the screen.