>Thanks for the input so far. But I think I did not word my question clearly enough. I actually do want to display the form and I do want to place controls on the form but I don't want the form to take focus away from the currently active form.
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>In short I want a form with the behaviour of a toolbar (when you place a control on a toolbar clicking a toolbar control does not cause the Valid() of the current control to fire) but with the visible flexibility of a form (oe, borderless, always on top, in desktop, etc...) I have been shown how to strip the borders from a toolbar and that is fine but (as far as I can tell) the toolbar cannot be created in the desktop or placed on top.
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>So yes I do want a form that is displayed but does not steal focus, so that I can create something similar to a popup menu using a VFP form rather than the popup control.

Another idea (that's all you'll get from me today :) - instantiate this form early on, before any other form, at negative coordinates. Then instantiate any other form you want. When you need it, just move it into visible area. So it will steal focus from no other form, when there are no other forms when it activates.