This might be too general of a question but I'm hoping someone will know. I created a user control. When I have the user control in my project as a .ascx page everything works fine. When I have the control in my project as a DLL it does not work. The first time it tries to reference one of the controls on the page, in this case a list box, I get a "object not set.." error. I realize that it is due to it not being initialized before this line but what exactly is the difference between the page loading as a ascx and as a dll?