>You can't control the colours through the control panel? That is very strange indeed. Is it all a bunch of computers of the same brand, maybe a video card problem?
>
>The only workaround I can think of is to specify different background colours on all forms though I am loathe to do this as I prefer to let users choose their schemes.

this selection (field active, no area selected) isn't available through the control panel. everything in the system uses the windows color setup.