Some Desktop Window Manager (DWM) Questions

So I have been working on a program that will mimic the functionality of
Expose on Vista, I am calling it Winpose but I am running into some issues.
Mainly its just the lack of available information on the web and in
communities, I hope this one can help since its an official Microsoft Forum.

First off I have the Thumbnails working using the DWMThumbnail API set, it
works great, well sort of. It only gives live previews of the window if the
window is not Minimized, I do not like this and would like to get a live
preview despite the window being minimized, seems like a bug but I am
unsure.

Second I have been unable to figure out how Flip3D is getting its animated
effects, such as when you select a window it animates back into place and
when you first start it animates them into place in the rolled view.
According to the blogs they are using the Thumbnail API, now I am leaning
towards the method they used is a trick of the eye, they are actually hiding
all the windows and then using GetWindowRect to place Thumbnail views over
the initial windows and then they animate them into place after that giving
the effect that the real windows are animating. Would really like some
thoughts from the developers or someone on how they did that!

Third how did you give the semi transparent background effect? Currently I
have don't this by using a Window that is maximized with an Opaque of like
45% and its background color set to black. It gives the same effect, and I
believe that how they did but I am not sure.

Thanks,
Eric