ok - i see where the issue is - lol
as i mentioned earlier, the MDI hierarchy looks like this
Frame
----MDIClient
----MDIChild
----MDIChild
the MDIClient is a predefined system class
the background brush color is always COLOR_APPWORKSPACE
in other words, whatever you paint into the client area of the Frame window is overdrawn by the MDIClient window
now, if we just wanted to change the color, we could probably do it with SetClassLong
but i think to paint an image, we have to subclass the MDIClient window
i hate subclassing system classes :lol:
you're always leaving yourself vulnerable to changes in different versions of windows (especially win7 AeroGlass theme)
in fact, i have an app where i wanted special buttons
rather than subclassing the (damned) button class, i wrote my own "DaveButton" class/window procedure - lol
i don't want to get into that for the MDIClient, although it could be done
so, we'll try subclassing and test it on different OS versions :(