Thats why the IMGX5 library is so good - it allows VB programmers to graphics stuff at C++ speed [both coding and execution].

Only problem is that its not a freebie - we have IMGX4 at work for our software and its great from VB.


The other alternative is to start fiddling with device contexts and all that stuff,

The best idea is to look at using a picturebox control in VB and 'decode' the PNG into it using PSET - won't be particularly elegant code, but I'd bet it would work better than IE.

There are also VB controls out there that can natively load PNG files into a picturebox control - from there its 'on the screen' more efficiently than with IE.