Transparent child forms within an MDI form.

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Hi, I'm developing a Windows Forms application that uses an MDI and child forms. The MDI has an image for the background. I am trying to make the child form background be transparent so the MDI image shows through. I have trawled the internet, and from my understanding this is not possible. However, it seems to be possible in unmanaged code using APIs. Are there any examples of how to do this and what API I should use (preferably in C#)?

Many thanks in advance.

Andy:confused:

Posted 26-Aug-10 10:27am

daniharTech

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Christian Graus · Answer 1 · 2010-08-26T11:36:00

Solution 1

If you can't set the opacity using the opacity of the background brush you assign, then I'm not sure how you'd do this, or what C++ APIs would do it. Have you considered using WPF ?

Posted 26-Aug-10 11:36am

Christian Graus

daniharTech · Answer 2 · 2010-08-26T21:33:00

Solution 2

Hi, setting the opacity using ARGB components, is not allowed on a form background, tried that!

Also, I didn't want to use WPF as the App needs to be backward compatible with Win 2000 and Win XP below SP2.

Thanks for your comments anyway.

Andy (MCTS)

Posted 26-Aug-10 21:33pm

daniharTech