Control without a form in VB .Net

Question

I would like to make an application where there is no form, only controls, this way theuser can see what they are doing on top of their work. How could I for instance put a textbox on the screen, just like form1, but without it being a parent of form1, almost as if it was form1. Basically form1 is hidden.

Thanks

Answer 1

Hide form1. Either make it a borderless form the same size as your control, or make it a broderless form and look into the TransparencyKey attribute on it.

Answer 2

Your controls have to be part of a form.

You can still do this by setting the form's opacity: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.form.opacity.aspx