Generally, when BMP files are used for RGBA (red, green, blue, alpha) images, they include the alpha information in a separate file. This might be whats going on in the "system provided toolbar images". Bletch wrote: 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. Are you sure the paint program is stripping the Alpha information, as opposed to the other possibility that you are opening the RGB bitmap and not realizing that the Alpha bitmap is in another file? ------------------------------------------ "What happened in that Rhode Island club is shocking. To think that over a hundred people would attend a Great White concert." - The Onion