Question

I am creating a basic GUI with the Windows API and I have run into an issue. It starts with a main window that opens with a custom background color I set (RGB(230,230,230)). It then displays text in the upper left corner with the static control.

settingstext = CreateWindow("STATIC",
                             "SETTINGS",
                             SS_LEFT | WS_CHILD,
                             12,
                             20,
                             100,
                             20,
                             hwnd,
                             NULL,
                             proginstance,
                             NULL);
ShowWindow(settingstext, 1);

This works, but when the text is displayed I need a way to change the background of it to match the main window or else it just looks like it doesn’t blend in.

My question is, how do I do this? I currently use the method below and it works, but I wanted to know, is there a way to permanently set the background color somehow, right after the CreateWindow function for the static control without changing system colors, and just have it apply to that one control and not anything that sends the WM_CTLCOLORSTATIC message. I have experimented around with using the GetDC function and SetBkColor function outside of the message loop but nothing works.

    case WM_CTLCOLORSTATIC:
    {
    HDC hdcStatic = (HDC) wParam;
    SetTextColor(hdcStatic, RGB(0,0,0));
    SetBkColor(hdcStatic, RGB(230,230,230));
    return (INT_PTR)CreateSolidBrush(RGB(230,230,230));
    }

I want to do this because…

• I don’t want to fill up my message loop with functions that need to be called every time the window repaints.
• Have the changes apply to only this static control.

I would be very thankful for any help that could be provided, at least pointing me in the right direction, thanks.

Answer 1

For static text controls there’s no permanent way to set the text color or their background. Even if you want to apply the changes to a single static control; you would still have to handle WM_CTLCOLORSTATIC notification message in parent dlgproc just when the control is about to be drawn.

This is due to the DefWindowProc overwriting your changes to the device context each time it handles WM_CTLCOLORSTATIC as stated in the MSDN:

By default, the DefWindowProc function selects the default system colors for the static control.

static HBRUSH hBrush = CreateSolidBrush(RGB(230,230,230));

case WM_CTLCOLORSTATIC:
{
    if (settingstext == (HWND)lParam)

              //OR if the handle is unavailable to you, get ctrl ID

    DWORD CtrlID = GetDlgCtrlID((HWND)lParam); //Window Control ID
    if (CtrlID == IDC_STATIC1) //If desired control
    {
       HDC hdcStatic = (HDC) wParam;
       SetTextColor(hdcStatic, RGB(0,0,0));
       SetBkColor(hdcStatic, RGB(230,230,230));
       return (INT_PTR)hBrush;
    }
}

If you’re looking to make the control’s background transparent over a parent dialog you could use SetBkMode(hdcStatic, TRANSPARENT).