Hidden windows never the get told to paint themselves by Windows. You can try sending a WM_PAINT message to the target window handle, but there is no guarantee that it'll work anyway. If the window determines that it, itself, is obscured, it won't waste the time painting those regions. RageInTheMachine9532 "...a pungent, ghastly, stinky piece of cheese!" -- The Roaming Gnome

Thanks for the link, but I had already found that and it like many others use the clipboard for capturing still shots. For example, that articles code for the function to capture an image uses... '---copy the image to the clipboard--- SendMessage(hWnd, WM_CAP_EDIT_COPY, 0, 0) '---retrieve the image from clipboard and convert it ' to the bitmap format data = Clipboard.GetDataObject() I have found an alternative to that scheme but now I am having problems forcing that window to paint it self or atleast think it is painted when it is hidded, as sometimes i get a black capture image. -Jason