Point taken - your right about the docs. Apparently, however, in XP Microsoft has started using an alpha channel, but the docs aren't up to date as usual. They're actually using alpha channels a fair bit in XP, between toolbar images and icons (which are just a different flavor of bmp).

I finally found one program that can do the job - Adobe Photoshop. Unfortunately, for my purposes its kind of like using a nuclear reactor to fry an egg, but at least it gets the job done. To answer some of the replies above, Photoshop opens the bitmap and does show alpha channel information for the image, and the best part is it allows the image to be saved as a bitmap with alpha channel intact.

The file was originally a bitmap resource in a dll, and the first two bytes of the file are 'BM'. I show a more complete dump of the file below in my reply to Chris.

Here are the first few bytes of the file, labeled with the names from MSDN, and the actual decimal value on the right. Note that the file is definitely a bitmap, and it is 32 bits (24 bits + alpha). bfType - 42 4D - "BM" bfSize - 36 BC 00 00 - 0x0000BC36 bfReserved1 - 00 00 - 0 bfReserved2 - 00 00 - 0 bfOffBits - 36 00 00 00 - 0x36 biSize - 28 00 00 00 - 0x28 biWidth - F0 02 00 00 - 752 bcHeight - 10 00 00 00 - 16 biPlanes - 01 00 - 1 biBitCount - 20 00 - 32 I didn't include it here, but the specified compression is 0 for none, so I'm not being confused by compressed data. The extra 8 bits are not just filler, either - here is a section of actual bitmap data further in the file (note that data is being provided for all 4 components): C3 FF 9E 9E pixel 9E EF 91 72 pixel 72 CF C5 AC pixel AC FF B5 B5 pixel Anyone who wishes to take a look, this from bitmap id 216 in the XP comctl32.dll version 6.0.2600.0

The system provided toolbar images in XP common controls library definitely include an alpha channel, and the toolbars appear to be using the data. I need to rearrange some of the images in these bitmaps, but can't do it because every program I've found strips the alpha information, thereby destroying the mask. I don't really want to get involved in trying to use a different image format just for a toolbar bitmap.

I'm trying to edit some bitmaps with an alpha channel for a toolbar, and I need a program like Paint that comes with windows, but with support for an Alpha channel. I have downloaded several programs and checked them out, including Paint Shop Pro, and none will do the job so far. PSP doesn't seem to import/export the alpha channel of a simple .bmp file properly. Does anyone here have a program to suggest - I don't need any fancy features, just basic pixel editing and alpha... Ideas?

A good general site I use is http://www.iisfaq.com

You can export functions from an .exe by including a .def in your project just as you do for a .dll There's one catch however - when the application is loaded using LoadLibrary (Ex), the entry point for the application is NOT called (because it would launch the application), so you must code any exported functions so they do any needed initialization the first time they are called, or don't require initialization, and your application will receive no notification when it is unloaded, so normal cleanup is impossible. In case you hadn't noticed, MS Word 2000 (and possibly older versions) exports functions.