Setting focus/visible to a control fails

There are two simple reasons why the Focused or Visible properties may not be what you expect.

If you set the focus to a control when it isn't visible (such as during Form_Load), it will not work. In the case of Form_Load, try to give it an appropriate TabIndex so that it is focused when the form comes up.

If you set a control to visible when it is inside of a container control that is invisible, the control will remain invisible. Set the parent to visible, and then the child.