Question: I've been trying to make an icon that has transparency. I've tried Axialis but the documentation is crummy and the ui is somewhat inscrutable. Everytime I think I've figured out how to set transparency, it's coming in with white space.
MS documenation mentions using magenta as the background, so I also tried that and got transparency but at the price of a pink halo.
I've tried a Photoshop plugin and it came out correctly but I can't figure out how to stuff multiple sizes in there.

This must be a common problem and yet Google is not being my friend.

Answer: 
Just use GIMP (<http://www.gimp.org/>). Start off with a transparent background and the size you would like. I use it for all my Android applications.
Try Evan Old's plugin for Paint.NET. YMMV.

<http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/927-icon-cursor-and-animated-cursor-format-v37-may-2010/page-1>