Hi Mike,

There is a way of setting the background image of a ListView control by sending windows message LVM_SETBKIMAGE.
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa453514.aspx

Populating of the LVBKIMAGE structure may appear challenging in VFP, but it's doable.

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So far my efforts to make it work are not successful even if I'm able to populate the structure and send the message to the ListView control's window. By using Spy++, I have noticed that VFP, when sets the Picture property of the ListView, does not send LVM_SETBKIMAGE message at all; but still sends LVM_ messages modifying the background color and the text color.

Code samples utilizing LVM_SETBKIMAGE in other program languages (VB, VB.Net, C#) are very straightforward and simple. Applying same technique in VFP code does not work.

I start thinking that the way VFP displays ActiveX control interferes with sending LVM_SETBKIMAGE messages. Still I will give it another try.