This is not about transparency. Whole control can be done non-rectangular.
Use control's property
System.Drawing.Region Region
.
Region is a drawing object which can be constructed out of
GraphicPath
.
myControl.Region = new Region(myNonRectangularPath);
Of course, control's clickable area will be its region.
Also, regions can be combined using set theory operations: Union, Intersect, etc. to produce shapes of arbitrary complexity (all from native GDI).
This way people make any controls non-rectangular including forms/windows (look at those audio players).
WPF provides similar features.