Bonnie,
Sorry, I have been AWOL for a few days. Here's the situation. I have a form that is basically a lookup form. It grabs data from the database subject to various filters and displays the data in a grid. In the load of this form I have the following code

Try
floater = New frmLookUpControl(SearchType, Me)
floater.StartPosition = FormStartPosition.Manual
floater.Location = New Point(Me.Location.X + Me.Width + 5, Me.Location.Y + btnMapCustomer.Location.Y)
floater.Show()
Me.txtAcctNoName.Focus()
Catch oerr As Exception
MsgBox(oerr.Message)
end try

The form called floater is set to be "topmost" and contains a list of different actions that the lookup form can perform ( find a customer to 1. take a payment, 2 edit customer data etc.) Options chosen in the floater change the behavior of the lookup form.

Inside the code for the lookup form, I am careful to hide floater whenever an action takes place ( opens another screen etc) and then show floater when the lookup form gets focus again.

If the user activates another completely different application, floater remains floating majestically on top. The lookup form never loses focus so floater never gets hidden. What I need is a way to determine when my application loses focus. Any help greatly appreciated...