yes, the control is one of those shipped with Lookout v4.5 - it's called CWNumEdit. i just openned up Lookout again to confirm this information and the activex control NOW installs and shows up on the panel correctly. i don't believe i did anything differently, so i'm guessing it might be a problem i have with windows. any light you can shed on this would ease my concerns for future developement.
thanx for responding...
p.s. is it possible to change ones alias without re-registering?