If you want to register a window class and use a system color as its background color, you set the hbrBackground member to the desired color, plus one, cast to an HBRUSH: wc.hbrBackground = (HBRUSH)(COLOR_WINDOW + 1); Windows 95 introduced ''system color brushes'', which are a magic type of brush which always paint in the corresponding ...

Last time, I talked about the historical background for the CS_OWNDC class style and why it starts out sounding like a good idea but when you think about it some more turns out to be an awful idea. The CS_CLASSDC class style is the same thing, but worse, for it takes all the problems of CS_OWNDC and magnifies them. Recall that the CS_OWNDC ...

Recall that window DCs are most commonly used only temporarily. If you need to draw into a window, you call BeginPaint or, if outside of a paint cycle, GetDC, although painting outside of a paint cycle is generally to be avoided. The window manager produces a DC for the window and returns it. You use the DC, then restore it to its original state ...