Roel answer is fine if you want to create a top-level window. If you need to crate a child window (which must be the case if you are creating a control) you cannot use WS_EX_LAYERED (I think this has changed from Windows 8 on).
The easy trick is to draw parent as the control backgroud. So in the OnEraseBkgnd you can add this code:
BOOL uiBarcodeButton::OnEraseBkgnd(CDC* pDC)
{
CRect rect;
GetClientRect(rect);
return afxGlobalData.DrawParentBackground( this, pDC, rect);
}
Not sure if afxGlobalData global variable is just for MFC 2008 Feature Pack. If you are using a previous version of MFCs then you can use the code from DrawParentBackground:
ASSERT_VALID(pDC);
ASSERT_VALID(pWnd);
BOOL bRes = FALSE;
CRgn rgn;
if (rectClip != NULL)
{
rgn.CreateRectRgnIndirect(rectClip);
pDC->SelectClipRgn(&rgn);
}
CWnd* pParent = pWnd->GetParent();
ASSERT_VALID(pParent);
// In Windows XP, we need to call DrawThemeParentBackground function to implement
// transparent controls
if (m_pfDrawThemeBackground != NULL)
{
bRes = (*m_pfDrawThemeBackground)(pWnd->GetSafeHwnd(), pDC->GetSafeHdc(), rectClip) == S_OK;
}
if (!bRes)
{
CPoint pt(0, 0);
pWnd->MapWindowPoints(pParent, &pt, 1);
pt = pDC->OffsetWindowOrg(pt.x, pt.y);
bRes = (BOOL) pParent->SendMessage(WM_ERASEBKGND, (WPARAM)pDC->m_hDC);
pDC->SetWindowOrg(pt.x, pt.y);
}
pDC->SelectClipRgn(NULL);
return bRes;