Handle the WM_CTLCOLOR message. Here's a sample in MFC-style code that illustrates the technique.

HBRUSH CTestbed2Dlg::OnCtlColor(CDC* pDC, CWnd* pWnd, UINT nCtlColor)
{
   HBRUSH hbr;

   switch (nCtlColor)
   {
      case CTLCOLOR_STATIC:
         pDC->SetTextColor (RGB(128,0,0));
         // red text.
         hbr = (HBRUSH)GetStockObject(NULL_BRUSH);
         break;

      default:
         hbr = CDialog::OnCtlColor(pDC, pWnd, nCtlColor);
         break;
   }
   return hbr;
}

If you wanted to change the background colour of your statics, you could do it by adding a call to SetBkColor. For instance

pDC->SetBkColor (RGB(0,0,0));

would give you a black background for your static text. Incidentally, you can combine this technique with Tip #11 to neaten up dialogs with bitmap backgrounds. Just add the line

pDC->SetBkMode (TRANSPARENT);

to the CTLCOLOR_STATIC handler, and your bitmap will show through all the static item backgrounds.

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