Hi,

in the DesignHost why should the RootComponent be a Form even when the class
you may be designing is derived from a form?

Take for example a simple object graph of: (A form with 2 buttons and a user
control):

<MyForm>
   <button>
   <textbox>
   <MyUserControl>

When loading this graph in to the designer I alway have to create the
RootComponent as a Form rather than a MyForm, otherwise I find all the
controls on the design surface are readonly / locked. This doesn't follow
the same pattern for the rest of the object graph. For example when I come
to add the MyUserControl to the host I can created an instance of
MyUserControl, not one of its base class.

Hope I'm making sense here!!

Regards

Graham