Transparent BMP display

I know how to load a bitmap from the resource and display it, but how can I display a bitmap with a transparent color?

Code:

static HBITMAP hBmp_Background;
HWND hBmpStat;

hBmp_Background = LoadBitmap(ghInstance, MAKEINTRESOURCE(ID_BMPBG));
hBmpStat = CreateWindowEx(NULL, "Static", "",
                    WS_VISIBLE | WS_CHILD | SS_BITMAP,
                    0, 0, 0, 0, hwnd, NULL, ghInstance, NULL);
SendMessage(hBmpStat, STM_SETIMAGE, IMAGE_BITMAP, (LPARAM) hBmp_Background);

And one more thing, do I need to keep the loaded object till the end of the program, or can I delete it once the STM_SETIMAGE is sent?

Thank you.

You'll only be able to draw icons to a basic, non-subclassed static control if you want transparency (icons contain both the mask and image).

For transparent bitmap rendering there's the quick and easy TransparentBlt which, unfortunately leaks memory under win98. To ensure your approach works for all windows then refer to the msdn article, How to draw transparent bitmaps.

edit: theForger's winprog tutorial has a page similar to the msdn one: transparent bitmaps which you may find useful.

thank you, i'll look it up.

one more thing, how do you know it leaks memory, is there some sort place where I can get those type of notifications?

Originally Posted by msdn, TransparentBlt

Windows 95/98: TransparentBlt contains a memory leak that can exhaust system resources. To draw a transparent bitmap using BitBlt - see Knowledge Base article 79212.

The knowledgebase (kb) 79212 article is the other page I gave you a link to (How to draw transparent bitmaps).