title: How to make my Deskband's (Taskbar Toolbar) Form transparent
body: <p>I'm working on a Windows Deskband in Delphi XE2 for Windows XP, Vista and 7 (Win32 and Win64)...</p>
  
  <p>I've implemented all the necessary interfaces (ITrayDeskBand, IDeskBandInfo, IDeskBand2, IDeskBand) in my code, and that all works exactly as it should (there are no warnings on Vista/7 complaining about compatibility as others have experienced).</p>
  
  <p>The problem I have is that my Deskband Form appears with a non-transparent band. Also, only certain Controls are displaying (in this case TBitBtn and TImage containing a PNG). I need it to display TEdit and TComboBox objects properly too, but they won't appear at all.</p>
  
  <p>I've tried enabling <code>GlassFrame</code> and <code>SheetOfGlass</code> properties on my Form, but this doesn't help one bit.</p>
  
  <p>Furthermore, the Form itself is exceeding the top boundary of the Taskbar, meaning you cannot (for example) resize the Taskbar if the cursor is in-line with the top of the Taskbar immediately above my Deskband.</p>
  
  <p>I believe there is something Delphi's VCL TForm type is doing behind the scenes which renders the TForm type incompatible as a Deskband container... but this is just a suspicion.</p>
  
  <p>Here's a screenshot illustrating the various problems:</p>
  
  <p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/B0LxJ.png" alt="enter image description here"></p>
  
  <p>As you can see (above), the Deskband's Form is pale (instead of Transparent), it overlaps the top of the Taskbar (preventing resizing and Autohide triggering when the Taskbar is "hidden")</p>
  
  <p>Any ideas?</p>
  
  <p><strong>UPDATE 1</strong>
  Okay, I have been playing around and noticed that a totally different behaviour is observed when creating a TToolBar control to be used for the Deskband, rather than a form:</p>
  
  <p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/Dla0W.png" alt="enter image description here"></p>
  
  <p>Notice there are three <code>TToolButton</code> controls (with their text virtually invisible due to the Glass theme)? There should also be a <code>TEdit</code> and <code>TComboBox</code> between two separators, but these refuse to display at all.</p>
  
  <p>Also notice the artefacting (the repetition of actual Taskbar Icons)?</p>
  
  <p>I'm not sure if this is a step in the right direction or not, but it might help you (or others) to deduce a solution!</p>