Transparent frame control not refreshing before being displayed.

Hi,

I am attempting to inplement some code that sets the background colour of a VB6 Frame control to transparent. I am doing this because I am using XP themes on the application and the colours of  the frame and tab control that it sits on are different.

Thia is the code I am using.

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Main form
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Public Sub Main()
    frmMain.fraMediaplayer.BackColor = &HFF&
    frmMain.Show
    frmMain.Refresh
    MakeFrameTransparent frmMain.fraMediaplayer
End Sub
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Module 1
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Option Explicit

Public Declare Function GetDC Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long) _
      As Long

Public Declare Function DeleteObject Lib "gdi32" (ByVal hObject _
      As Long) As Long

Public Declare Function CreateRectRgn Lib "gdi32" (ByVal X1 _
      As Long, ByVal Y1 As Long, ByVal X2 As Long, ByVal Y2 _
      As Long) As Long

Public Declare Function CombineRgn Lib "gdi32" (ByVal hDestRgn _
      As Long, ByVal hSrcRgn1 As Long, ByVal hSrcRgn2 As Long, _
      ByVal nCombineMode As Long) As Long

Public Declare Function GetPixel Lib "gdi32" (ByVal hDC As Long, _
      ByVal x As Long, ByVal y As Long) As Long

Public Declare Function SetWindowRgn Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd _
      As Long, ByVal hRgn As Long, ByVal bRedraw As Long) As Long

Public CtrlDc As Long

Public Function GetTransparentFrame(Ctrl As Frame) As Long
    Dim lHeight As Long
    Dim lWidth As Long
    Dim lTemp As Long
    Dim lSkin As Long
    Dim lStart As Long
    Dim lLine As Long
    Dim lColumn As Long
    Dim lBackColor As Long
     
    lSkin = CreateRectRgn(0, 0, 0, 0)

    With Ctrl
    'Form.ScaleMode = vbTwips
    lHeight = .Height / Screen.TwipsPerPixelY
    lWidth = .Width / Screen.TwipsPerPixelX
   
    'Form.ScaleMode = vbPixels
    'lHeight = .Height
    'lWidth = .Width
   
    CtrlDc = GetDC(.hwnd)
    lBackColor = Ctrl.BackColor

    For lLine = 0 To lHeight - 1
        lColumn = 0
        Do While lColumn < lWidth
            Do While lColumn < lWidth And GetPixel(CtrlDc, lColumn, lLine) = lBackColor
                lColumn = lColumn + 1
            Loop
   
            If lColumn < lWidth Then
                lStart = lColumn
                Do While lColumn < lWidth And GetPixel(CtrlDc, lColumn, lLine) <> lBackColor
                  lColumn = lColumn + 1
                Loop
       
                If lColumn > lWidth Then lColumn = lWidth
                lTemp = CreateRectRgn(lStart, lLine, lColumn, lLine + 1)
                Call CombineRgn(lSkin, lSkin, lTemp, 2)
                Call DeleteObject(lTemp)
            End If
        Loop
    Next lLine
End With

GetTransparentFrame = lSkin
End Function

Public Sub MakeFrameTransparent(Ctrl As Frame)
    Dim lSkin As Long
    Ctrl.Visible = True
    'Set the background colour.

    lSkin = GetTransparentFrame(Ctrl)
    Call SetWindowRgn(Ctrl.hwnd, lSkin, True)
End Sub


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When the form is loaded/displayed I can see the red background of the frame for a short period before it changes to transparent. If I put a break point in on >frmMain.show<, and step through the code, then it works, but take out the breakpoint - or compile into an exe and run - and I see the colour change.

Can the form be updated/painted before being shown on the screen, so that the red backgound is never seen?

Thanks,

AArnie.