About 6 years ago Microsoft asked Visimation to create the SpatialDataImport utility as one piece of a set of "sample code" to highlight MapPoint's programability. We developed the code sample but it was never designed as a real end-user application. After receiving many inquiries about conditions where it didn't work properly, we created a real tool to perform the import tasks more reliably. It's available at GIS Data Import for Microsoft MapPoint®.
This GIS Data Import tool converts the coordinate system of the source shape files to WGS84 so that MapPoint can understand it. The import process is very easy and provides control over the line and fill colors as well as whether the shapes display in front of or below the map data.
I hope this is helpful to the readers of this forum.
Brett Newman
Visimation Inc.
info@visimation.com