Mark,

Have you tried disabling the items in the listbox instead of the listbox itself. For example:

for m.e = 1 to thisform.lstList1.listcount
thisform.lstList1.listitem[ m.e ] = "\" + thisform.lstList1.listitem[ m.e ]
endfor

The highlight bar will appear as long as the user does not attempt to move it. Once the mouse or cursor is clicked in the listbox the highlight bar will disappear. You can, however, always force the highlight bar back again programmatically.

I'm not sure if will give you all the functionality you need but it might bring you close enough to the behavior you want.