Drawing on the desktop
This little test program was made to show how to draw on the desktop without hiding the icons. It uses windows hooks to monitor the messages sent to the desktop window and makes its own drawing between the drawing of the wallpaper and the icons.
Download executable
Download source code
Chris Grams sent me a modified drawtest that is able to do the same thing without using windows hooks. It uses the RedrawWindow() function to tell the desktop window to redraw the icons on top of the animated star.
Note: Neither my version, nor Chris' version works if Active Desktop is used because Active Desktop is already drawing under the icons. Perhaps there is a way to draw in between the Active Desktop and the icons but I have yet to discover how.