dotnet windows forms designtime: I have a base control that has anther control (ctr2) in it. I want ctr2 to
react in different ways depending on if the control is in designmode. I
can't seem to find out if it is or not when I inherit the base control.

Any thoughts?

you cannot check the DesignMode property of ctr2 since it will not be
sited on the designer surface. i've seen an implementation for this
where it checks for the container up the hierarchy until it encounters
a parent component with DesignMode = true, else it is on runtime.