Thanks Sergey - I really do appreciate your feedback! To be honest though, I guess my nature is to be perseverant, almost to a fault. In time, I may very well end up using someone else's replacement combobox control - but as a newbie I'd rather learn the base controls and their quirks/features.

Using a custom sub-class is not the same as using a "replacement" control. A subclass is merely a customized version of the class as it comes out of the box to provide either a standard look and feel or some additional functionality. The advantage of creating a custom class, is that you can use this class in any form without the necessity of having to write the same code over and over and over again or using VB6 inheritance ( copy and paste ).