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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-18T08:38:09+00:00

on this website, under the Edit Control title, there are a couple of lines

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on this website, under the “Edit Control” title, there are a couple of lines of code like this..

case WM_CREATE:
    hwndEdit = CreateWindow(TEXT("Edit"), NULL, WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE | WS_BORDER,
                50, 50, 150, 20, hwnd, (HMENU) ID_EDIT,
                NULL, NULL);

    hwndButton = CreateWindow(
        TEXT("button"), TEXT("Set Title"),       
        WS_VISIBLE | WS_CHILD,  
        50, 100, 80, 25,        
        hwnd, (HMENU) ID_BUTTON, NULL, NULL);      

    break;

I know that this method of creating buttons and such are done on the fly, But I was wondering how you would do it without doing it like this, instead using a resource file?.
In the Forgers Win32 tutorial it shows how to make a menu using a resource file, and how to describe a dialog box etc, But I cant seem to put any controls on the main(parent) window using a resource file??.

for example I have the following .rc file

#include "resource.h"
ID_MENU MENU
BEGIN
    POPUP "&File"
    BEGIN
        MENUITEM "E&xit", ID_FILE_EXIT
    END
    POPUP "&About"
    BEGIN
        MENUITEM "&Information", ID_ABOUT_INFO
    END
END

ID_ABOUT_INFO DIALOG DISCARDABLE  0,0,250,250 
CAPTION "Information"
BEGIN
    CTEXT "some text",ID_BLA,15,15,144,33
END

//this is all fine but how do I decribe the main window?, instead of the menu and dialog boxes?.

How do I describe the main window instead of creating things on the fly?. Is there some kind of keyword?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    You can create a dialog as your main window.

    1. If you are using MFC in Visual Studio, use the project wizard to create a Dialog-Based app.

      (File -> New Project -> Visual C++ / MFC -> MFC Application -> OK -> Application Type -> Dialog based.)

      The generated application will then create your main dialog for you, and exit when it closes.

      A simple example of such a beast, including source, is here:

      http://www.pretentiousname.com/ICFRanger/index.html

    2. If you are using straight Win32, you’d create the dialog using CreateDialogParam (or similar) and then show it like any other window, and run a message loop. (Or you could use DoModal, which runs its own message loop, but beware that modal dialogs need to behave slightly differently, especially when it comes to closing.)

      A simple example of that, including source, is here:

      http://www.pretentiousname.com/setpoint_aon/index.html

    (Those are both programs I wrote, but very simple ones, so there’s not much to get in the way of understanding what they do.)

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