>I made a splash screen class. I then used WinAPI functions to hide the main window, throw up my splash screen while everything is loading, and then release the splash screen and show the main window. It works, but not perfectly. You still see the main window flash for a second or so.

Ok, just to be sure I made my explanations clear.

I don't have any problem showing the splash screen while everything is loading. I just say that nothing can appear before the run time loading is finish and this may take 3 to 5 seconds. If we can call a C program from the icon level which will fire a graphic and then call an EXE, this will be shown instantly and before the run time load time.