In Win32, how can the colour of STATIC text be changed?

Question

I have some static text on a window which is black, and I would like to change it at runtime using a Colour Chooser dialog. I have successfully obtained the colour, now I just n

Answer 1

You're on the right track with WM_CTLCOLORSTATIC. If you want to change the color, then invalidate the control (probably by using RedrawWindow). That will cause it to be repainted. When it's repainted, your WM_CTLCOLORSTATIC handler will be invoked again.

Answer 2

A few suggestions:

• Are you aware that it's the parent dialog that receives WM_CTLCOLORSTATIC, not the control itself?

• The return (BOOL)... looks weird - in which function does this code live? You should be returning an LRESULT from your window proc.

• You're leaking a brush every time - you should maintain a single brush and return that brush each time. Windows doesn't clean up the brush.