listbox fills and xp icons

I'd like to know how i can fill my listbox background with a gradient. I've managed to fill some panels fine, but the listbox simply doesn't want to know! I even tried placing the listbox on my panel and it wouldn't even let me change the background to transparent!!

Furthermore it looks like some controls (status bar to name but one), don't have a background color property! why?

Lastly, I've some win xp icons (in both ico and png format), but when I add these to my listbox, they don't render correctly! Any ideas on how to use xp icons with their full alpha transparency and anti-alias setting?

[616 byte] By [codefund.com] at [2007-12-16]