Hi there,
I'm trying to get a ball that follows the mouse pointer around the screen. To start with I'v made it static to the pointer & it should display below/right of the pointer.

I'v Googled & Yahoo'd, but can only find info on how to do this using a class that someone has made, but I want to learn how to do it myself. So I have written code to achieve this & it compiles fine . No errors are reported in loading the bmp and the point structure seems to be valid from the display of my app window. The only thing I lack is the ball...

Please see code below:

main.cpp (using dev-cpp & win.h definitions fixing GDI problems)
Code:
#include <windows.h>
#include "resource.h"

/*  Declare Windows procedure  */
LRESULT CALLBACK WindowProcedure (HWND, UINT, WPARAM, LPARAM);

/*  Make the class name into a global variable  */
char szClassName[ ] = "WindowsApp";

int WINAPI WinMain (HINSTANCE hThisInstance,
                    HINSTANCE hPrevInstance,
                    LPSTR lpszArgument,
                    int nFunsterStil)

{
    HWND hwnd;               /* This is the handle for our window */
    MSG messages;            /* Here messages to the application are saved */
    WNDCLASSEX wincl;        /* Data structure for the windowclass */

    /* The Window structure */
    wincl.hInstance = hThisInstance;
    wincl.lpszClassName = szClassName;
    wincl.lpfnWndProc = WindowProcedure;      /* This function is called by windows */
    wincl.style = CS_DBLCLKS;                 /* Catch double-clicks */
    wincl.cbSize = sizeof (WNDCLASSEX);

    /* Use default icon and mouse-pointer */
    wincl.hIcon = LoadIcon (hThisInstance, MAKEINTRESOURCE(IDI_ICON));
    wincl.hIconSm = LoadIcon (hThisInstance, MAKEINTRESOURCE(IDI_ICON));
    wincl.hCursor = LoadCursor (NULL, IDC_ARROW);
    wincl.lpszMenuName = NULL;                 /* No menu */
    wincl.cbClsExtra = 0;                      /* No extra bytes after the window class */
    wincl.cbWndExtra = 0;                      /* structure or the window instance */
    /* Use Windows's default color as the background of the window */
    wincl.hbrBackground = (HBRUSH) COLOR_BACKGROUND;

    /* Register the window class, and if it fails quit the program */
    if (!RegisterClassEx (&wincl))
        return 0;

    /* The class is registered, let's create the program*/
    hwnd = CreateWindowEx (
           0,                   /* Extended possibilites for variation */
           szClassName,         /* Classname */
           "Windows App",       /* Title Text */
           WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW, /* default window */
           CW_USEDEFAULT,       /* Windows decides the position */
           CW_USEDEFAULT,       /* where the window ends up on the screen */
           200,                 /* The programs width */
           100,                 /* and height in pixels */
           HWND_DESKTOP,        /* The window is a child-window to desktop */
           NULL,                /* No menu */
           hThisInstance,       /* Program Instance handler */
           NULL                 /* No Window Creation data */
           );

    /* Make the window visible on the screen */
    ShowWindow (hwnd, nFunsterStil);

    /* Run the message loop. It will run until GetMessage() returns 0 */
    while (GetMessage (&messages, NULL, 0, 0))
    {
        /* Translate virtual-key messages into character messages */
        TranslateMessage(&messages);
        /* Send message to WindowProcedure */
        DispatchMessage(&messages);
    }

    /* The program return-value is 0 - The value that PostQuitMessage() gave */
    return messages.wParam;
}


/*  This function is called by the Windows function DispatchMessage()  */

LRESULT CALLBACK WindowProcedure (HWND hwnd, UINT message, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam)
{
    HINSTANCE hInstance;
    POINT ptCursor;
    
    HWND hDesk;
    HDC  hDeskDC;
    HBITMAP bmBall;
    BITMAP bm;
    
    char szInfo[40]; int iLen;
    switch (message)                  /* handle the messages */
    {
        case WM_CREATE:
             {
             HINSTANCE hInstance = ((LPCREATESTRUCT) lParam)->hInstance;
             hDesk = GetDesktopWindow();
             //hDeskDC = GetDC(hDesk);
             bmBall = LoadBitmap (hInstance, MAKEINTRESOURCE(IDB_IMAGE));
             if (bmBall == NULL)
             {
                 MessageBox (hwnd, "resource not loaded..", "Error", MB_OK);
             }
             int obj = GetObject (bmBall, sizeof (BITMAP), &bm);
             if (obj == NULL)
             {
                 MessageBox (hwnd, "error with GetObject()..", "Error", MB_OK);
             }
             SetTimer(hwnd, 1, 100, NULL);
             }
             break;
        
        case WM_TIMER:
             {
             InvalidateRect(hwnd, NULL, FALSE);
             }
             break;
        
        case WM_PAINT:
             {
             HDC hDC, hdcMem;
             PAINTSTRUCT ps;
            
             GetCursorPos (&ptCursor);
            
             hDC = BeginPaint (hwnd, &ps);
             hDeskDC = GetDC(hDesk);
             //hdcMem = CreateCompatibleDC(hDC);
             hdcMem = CreateCompatibleDC(hDeskDC); // Will ball show?
             
             SelectObject (hdcMem, bmBall);
             TransparentBlt(hDeskDC, (ptCursor.x + 32), (ptCursor.y + 32), 28, 28, hdcMem, 0, 0, 28, 28, RGB(255, 0, 255));
             
             DeleteDC (hdcMem);
             DeleteDC(hDeskDC);
             
             iLen = wsprintf (szInfo, "x = %d   ", ptCursor.x);
             TextOut (hDC, 0, 0, szInfo, iLen);
             iLen = wsprintf (szInfo, "y = %d   ", ptCursor.y);
             TextOut (hDC, 0, 32, szInfo, iLen);
             
             EndPaint (hwnd, &ps); 
             //InvalidateRect(hDesk, NULL, FALSE); // Still wont show ball
             }
             break;
        
        case WM_DESTROY:
            {
            KillTimer (hwnd, 1);
            //DeleteDC(hDeskDC);
            PostQuitMessage (0);       /* send a WM_QUIT to the message queue */
            }
            break;
        
        default:                      /* for messages that we don't deal with */
            return DefWindowProc (hwnd, message, wParam, lParam);
    }

    return 0;
}
resource.h
Code:
#define     IDI_ICON        1000
#define     IDB_IMAGE       1010
resource.rc
Code:
#include "resource.h"

IDB_IMAGE         BITMAP "c:\\dev-cpp\\examples\\Bmp2Scr\\Ball.bmp"

IDI_ICON         ICON   "c:\\dev-cpp\\examples\\Bmp2Scr\\Icon.ico"
As you can see, I'v tryed different things, but with no apparrent success. It's possibly something small that i'v missed. As usual, my thanks in advance for any help given...