Whenever the MessageForm is shown on my computer, there is no border or any other nice formatting. I've included a screen shot. This is the MessageForm shown when the password is incorrect, but this happens whenever I call it also.



I'm using Win2k Pro, sp4.

I uninstalled and reinstalled SF (1.5.1, oct 20th update). Message forms are still borderless.



So, what's the next step?

Hrm... it could be that you have a display setting that is preventing the USER_DRAW option on the MessageForm from being handled properly.  What are your display settings, like resolution, color depth, etc?

1280x768

32 bit



Other message classes work great, like the InfoBox variations.

That's strange... we don't have a computer with Win2K SP4, but I have a virtual machine that I could install it on and see what's happening.  However, if you need it in a hurry, you can download the source code and build it in debug.  Once that's done, you can open the ThemedWindowBase.vb file (in the MicroFour StrataFrame Base solusion in the Windows folder) within your project and step through the drawing.  Most likely, there is an exception being thrown somewhere because of some unsupported feature in Win2K SP4.

If you add a new Themed Form to your project (through the SF Themed Form template), does it draw properly at runtime and design-time?

I created a new project, added a themed form to it. I was pinkish-purlpish at design time (obviously the transparent color) and nothing was rendered at design time. So, looks like win2k sp4 at least is missing something required. That's pretty important for me to know as I know at least several of my client are still on win2k.



I won't have time to do a debug compile of SF until next week at the earliest.

This is a GDIPlus rendering issue and can be supported in Win2K, but may require a hotfix or service pack. 

Just FYI, this is not an SF issue, but a .NET rendering issue and this is something we do not have control over.

Any leads on how to figure where the hotfix or service pack for this is?

I really do not know where to tell you to start.  I now that one file involved is the GDIPlus.dll, but there are a number of others as well.  It has been a long time since we supported Windows 2000.  Here is one thing you might look for on Google: ".NET, Windows 2000, TransparencyKey" and go from there.  This is just an issue between .NET and the Windows 2000 environment on this particular point.  Native form transparency wasn't a native fixture until Windows XP, so there is a patch or update that is required for Windows 2000 to work....and I am sorry I can't point you directly to it

Well, if there is an update, I'm having a hell of a time finding it. Everything I read says that transparency is supported starting with Win2K.



I created a simple app and the transparencykey work fine. I simply put a label on the form, set the backcolor of the label to some bright color, set the backcolor of the form to 'control' and the transparencykey to 'control' (the system color). The form was transparent. So, the problem must be more than just the transparency key.



Also, are you saying that you don't support Windows 2K? I missed that during the evaluation. If you don't, I suppose I'm on my own and will have to re-implement the MessageForm class to not use whatever is broken. If that is the case, could you point me in the right direction there so I don't have to hunt for the bits that need to be removed/replaced?