Joe,

You must be doing something out of the ordinary. A Form will not be visible until the Activate() event which doesn't happen until after after the Form.Init() finishes.

>This is probably a simple problem with a simple solution, but I'm cramping.
>
>I want a form to be invisible while the Init method executes, and I do some setup.
>
>I have tried setting the visible property in design mode, explicitly setting it as the first statement in the init method. I have also tried setting the left property to 9000 (so that the form is initially off-screen). Nothing I do makes the form invisible right off the bat.