How to use C++ standard smart pointers with Windows HANDLEs?

Question

I was wondering if there is a way to use unique_ptr with Windows HANDLEs?

I was thinking to replace the std::default_delete with s

Answer 1

The question can be extended for COM IUnknown pointers - can CComPtr be replaced by any of the standard smart pointers?

Yes. You don't specialize std::default_deleter, you simply replace the deleter type.

struct COMDeleter {
    template void operator()(T* ptr) {
        ptr->Release();
    }
};
unique_ptr ptr; // Works fine

The same principle applies to shared_ptr and indeed, to HANDLE.