>I keep seeing a bunch of applications that pull up without the standard block shaped forms....I'd like to be able to pull up a picture with a transparent background and see the desktop behind it.

Here's a thread on transparent forms with Win2K:

Forms & Form designer: Fun with VFP 6 and Windows 2000.
Thread #377423 Message #377423
From 06/06/2000 14:31:25

And one on odd shapped forms:

Forms & Form designer: Odd shaped form
Thread #332746 Message #332746
From 16/02/2000 01:24:10