Create Window

[CornedBee]

You create the dialog in the dialog editor and then use the DialogBox function to show the dialog. You also need to write a DlgProc for the dialog and pass it's name to DialogBox.

[Chris]

Juz some add on infor,

DialogBox will create a modal dialog and close the dialog with EndDialog(hDlg, LOWORD(wParam));

CreateDialog will create a modaless dialog and close the dialog with DestroyWindow (hDlg);

[MidgetsBro]

Just to clear this up... I have NO experience with windows programming in C++. I don't know how to make windows or anything. I just want to learn how to create a window that I can draw on or print text to. Is the dialog what I want? I saw Vlatko's tutorial type post, and I used that code to create a window, but I didn't know what to do with it. I couldn't even figure out how to change the background color.

[Technocrat]

Well since you dont want to use MFC you have to do that manually. I can tell you are a VB person. I do not want this to sound rude, but once you start doing this it will make you C/C++ life better. STOP THINKING IN VB

Nothing you do in C/C++ from a window stand point is as easy as VB was. You have to do many things yourself. A good example is a button on your window. Its not like VB where you just plop a button down, set your code and be done. In C/C++ (with some exceptions MFC, dialogs, etc) you have to code in your button, you can't just draw it.
Example:

//Create Run Button
    g_hWnd_RunButton = CreateWindow("Button", "Run", BS_PUSHBUTTON | WS_CHILD, 152, 1, 75, 35, g_m_hWnd, (HMENU)ID_RUNCLICK, g_m_hInst, NULL); 

Then you have to catch the window message for when the button is clicked and have it fire off the function, code, or whatever you want it to do.

Example:

switch(message) 
    {

        case WM_COMMAND:
            {
                switch(LOWORD(wParam))
                {
                                    case ID_RUNCLICK:                //Run Button Click
                    {
                                            SENDMSG("Started Running .");
                            ClientRefresh();        //Refresh The Client Just Encase 

At first it is going to seem really hard, but once you get the basics down it will start to click. Then it will get a whole lot easier for you.

[Technocrat]

Oh and here are some great tutorials. You might want to start with the C++, then move up to the VC++.

Tutorials

[MidgetsBro]

The thing is, I already know C++. I had an AP class last year and we learned all the basics like Arrays and pointers, etc. I can make console programs pretty decent, but you can't really do much with a console program. I want to convert this one program I made from VB to C++ so that it is smaller and easier to distribute to people without the VB runtimes. Thanks for that link to those tutorials. I'll have a look at them.