Keep calling regular VFP MESSAGEBOX() function and control some of the dialog's settings, namely:
- dialog size and position
- message font and font color
- dialog background (solid color, hatch or bitmap brush can be selected)
- dialog icon (icons from ICO and resource files can be selected)
- button captions and fonts (not font colors)
- displaying additional controls: checkbox, href link, up to 3 additional buttons

Example of usage:

SET LIBRARY TO xmsg71.fll
xmsg_AssignMessageFont('Arial', 24)
xmsg_AssignMessageFontColor( RGB(12,57,126) )
xmsg_SetDlgMonitor(.T.)
 
= MESSAGEBOX('A picture is worth a thousand words.',;
    64+5, VERSION())

All MESSAGEBOX() calls coming after issuing the xmsg_SetDlgMonitor() command will display the dialog message in Arial 24 font until either the settings change or the library gets closed. No need repeating the settings before every MESSAGEBOX() call.

The FLL is compiled with Visual Studio 2003. That requires the VC71 Runtime files installed. Not an issue for 2 to 3 year old PCs or any PC with VFP9 properly installed.

So far the library is found working well with VFP8 and VFP9 running on Windows versions: Vista Pro (64-bit), Windows XP Pro and Home (32-bit), Windows Server 2008 (64-bit).

Fully functional demo version (includes code samples) can be downloaded from the library's web page.
http://www.news2news.com/vfp/?solution=3

There are some reservations:
- when the Timeout parameter is required, the xmsg_ShowDialog() library function should be used rather than the MESSAGEBOX()
- not tested with VFP7 yet
- not tested on systems that use right-to-left reading order (Hebrew and Arabic)