Transparent but clickable Button

[Alkdarf]

I monitor door cameras with a third party application that gives me multiple video windows for the various video inputs in the card.

I want to create an application that will overlay the video windows so that each video window becomes a button I can click on to trigger some events (lock release for example).

I've managed to get something working by using the TransparencyKey of the form set to the backcolor of my button. I though I had it done, a great transparent button in the form, and handles all my click. However, there's a little issue with portability... it won't work if I have the Windows Classic theme enabled.

One of my systems is locked down with the windows classic theme. With the Windows classic theme (whether running XP or Vista), the transparency works a little too well, the mouse clicks actually go through to the underlying window and the click event never gets triggered on my application's button.

Button1.BackColor = Color.Cyan
Me.TransparencyKey = Button1.BackColor

Any help would be great.

[tlhintoq]

It sounds very fragile: Like you say just a theme change breaks it.
What about a small floating pallet that you can display several times: One above each image.
Keep the opacity low (transparency high) until the cursor is over it, then bring it to full opacity (zero transparency).