Much larger than just a hint. I, for one, have been fighting problems like this for a while now and would love to look at a different view than my own for a change.:thumbsup:

The ShowWindow API can be used inside any dialog. There is no more to it than just that. It is usually made a part of a method which also includes the SetForegroundWindow but that is all. Experiment with it. Its the only way to become familiar with something. As for the theory: A modeless dialog is a window that has no exclusive rights to system resources such as the cursor. It can remain on the desktop in a hidden state while the rest of the control is active and busy with other things and can be hidden and brought to the foreground at will. I think that in your case the control is only a dialog and that is why you perceive the control to be hidden and shown. That is not true. The control cannot be hidden because running code does not subscribe to the concept of being hidden etc. Only a GUI element can go through these states and that is what ShowWindow is designed for.

The way to do this is to use: ::ShowWindow( SW_HIDE or SW_SHOW ) Usually one would add a method to the control as: BOOL LogonDlg::SetVisibility( int nCmd ) {       BOOL bRet = ShowWindow( nCmd );       if( nCmd == SW_SHOW )      SetForegroundWindow();       return bRet; }

What do you mean make it transparent?

This is from MSDN "Quote" FIX: The CDialog::Create() function returns an incorrect value when a dialog box is created in Visual C++ View products that this article applies to. This article was previously published under Q193099 "Unquote" Sample: // Create a modeless dialog box. In this example, m_pModeless is a    // member variable of type CModeless where CModeless is a CDialog-    // derived class. IDD_MODELESS is the ID number of a dialog-box template    // resource.    m_pModeless = new CModeless;    if (m_pModeless->Create(IDD_MODELESS, this) && ::IsWindow(m_pModeless->m_hWnd))    {          // ... succeeded in dialog-box creation.    }    else    {          // ... failed in dialog-box creation.    } Once again from MSDN. For me personally. I have always created the dialog box first, tested it as a modal dialog and then made it modeless by creating it as follows:      LogonDlg* pDlg = new LogonDlg;      // create it if necessary      LogonDlg * pApp = (LogonDlg*)AfxGetApp()->m_pMainWnd;      if (pApp->m_hWnd == NULL && !pApp->Create(LogonDlg::IDD))      {           CTraceLog::TraceMsg( "InitInstance failed to create LogonDlg" );           return FALSE;      }      pApp->SetVisibility( SW_HIDE );

Right on all counts. The original job was done by myself, so everything is as I hoped it should be. I also include the old job.h file with the cplusplus override added. Its obvious I am doing something wrong! As an afterthought, part of the decision to do this had to do with the schlepp of using LoadLibrary, GetProcAdress or DllImport and possibly speed of linking as well.

I am in charge of a large number of dll's written in MFC. I have made a decision to convert them to COM interfaces. I studied the subject and decided ATL is the best answer. Problem is: I cannot call the old dll methods without getting a LNK2019 error. The IDE is VS2003. I read something about there being a issue with VS2003 with the 'attribute' keyword. A nudge in the right direction would be highly appreciated.

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