Reading an article the other day reminded me of a Gotcha that seems to crop up in the forums every so often. The question usually goes along the lines of :
"I've added the ampersand symbol to the text of a button to give it an Alt plus X hotkey for the button click. I can see the underscore in the VS IDE, but when I run the project, the underscore has disappeared."
Folk spend a lot of time trying to find the answer to this "VB.NET" problem, but it actually isn't a VB programming glitch at all . The answer lies in the settings of the user's current operating system. The missing underscore is caused because the current setting in Windows is "Hide underlined letters for keyboard navigation until I press the Alt key".
If this choice is selected then that's what happens - the underscore remains invisible unti the Alt key is depressed. Seems reasonable when you come to think of it :-}
Actually the underscore accelerator will work fine even though you can't see it, but it's a bit disconcerting when you don't .
The setting is available from the Windows desktop : Just navigate to the menu choice and remove the check from the checkbox.
Windows XP:
Properties - Display Properties - Appearance - Effects (Last box in menu) Display Properties - Effects (Last Box in menu)
Windows 2000
Properties - Display Properties - Effects (Last box in menu) Display Properties - Effects (Last Box in menu)