Well you can paint it back bg with CTL_COLORSTATIC notification message, you can use keyboard handler to do pretty cool stuff or you can simply trace for keywrds like record for keyboard msgs in wnd proc, and use gettickcount know make if a word is typed.then you can simply use GetDlgItemText to get text then append, i recommend use sstream.h for string formatting. then simply set the text to edit box with setdlgitemtext

Glad you've solved your own problem - always the best learning experience that way! Iain. I have now moved to Sweden for love (awwww). If you're in Scandinavia and want an MVP on the payroll (or happy with a remote worker), or need cotract work done, give me a job! http://cv.imcsoft.co.uk/[^]

You should easily be able to achieve 30,000(or more) messages per second, provided you have good hardware and a fast network connection, using IO Completion Ports and asynchronous sockets. See this article: http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/1000/Winsock/[^]