Every list view item has a current state that determines its appearance and functionality. You can retrieve and set this state by sending the LVM_GETITEM, LVM_SETITEM, and LVM_SETITEMSTATE messages or by using the ListView_GetItem and ListView_SetItem macros. You set or retrieve the item state in the state member of the LV_ITEM structure that you pass in the pItem parameter, lParam, to these messages and macros. List view item states supported by Windows CE are described in the following table.
| State | Description |
| LVIS_CUT | The item is marked for a cut and paste operation. |
| LVIS_DROPHILITED | The item is highlighted as a drag-and-drop target. |
| LVIS_FOCUSED | The item has the focus, so it is surrounded by a standard focus rectangle. Although more than one item may be selected, only one item can have the focus. |
| LVIS_LINK | The item is a link. |
| LVIS_PUSHED | The button-like item appears pushed. This value has no effect, unless the LVS_BUTTON window style is used. |
| LVIS_SELECTED | The item is selected. The appearance of a selected item depends on whether it has the focus and on the system colors used for selection. |
You can use the LVIS_OVERLAYMASK mask to isolate the state bits that contain the one-based index of the overlay image. You can use the LVIS_STATEIMAGEMASK mask to isolate the state bits that contain the one-based index of the state image.