This browser is no longer supported.
Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support.
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(140.8, 82%, 23%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EDM%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
A CPropertySheet dialog in our C++/MFC/Win32 desktop application is showing "ghost" text overwriting a multiline edit box since updating Windows 11 to 25H2.
This was first seen by a client but we have replicated internally on multiple machines.
We've also created a stripped-down standalone application which demonstrates the issue. This can be found at https://github.com/d6mck/MultilineEditTest.
With reference to the standalone application, the intial dialogue shows the expected results, with the text being legible:
Whereas the CPropertySheet has the initial edit box text duplicated, making editing confusing at best:
This appears to be a specific issue with a combination of:
Our client updated in the past week:
And local testing shows that this update sequence triggers the issue:
I'm discounting the client's KB2467173 since both the product and test application are VS2022, so use the 2015-2022 redistributable. Neither of the other two claim to impact anything relevant.
It looks like there's been a breaking change in the latest Win 11 updates. Can anyone point us in the direction of fixing this?
One of the possible workaround is to handle the WM_CTLCOLOR message (in property page). Something like this:
HBRUSH CMyPropertyPage1::OnCtlColor( CDC* pDC, CWnd* pWnd, UINT nCtlColor )
{
HBRUSH hbr = __super::OnCtlColor( pDC, pWnd, nCtlColor );
if( pWnd->GetDlgCtrlID() == IDC_EDIT1 ) // detect the specific edit control
{
pDC->SetBkMode( OPAQUE );
pDC->SetBkColor( GetSysColor( COLOR_WINDOW ) );
hbr = (HBRUSH)GetStockObject( COLOR_WINDOW + 1 );
}
return hbr;
}
It can be tried when the applications that demonstrate the issue become available.
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(188.79999999999998, 52%, 28%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3ES%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
I'm seeing the same thing, except that in my case it's much worse than just a little 'ghosting'. The text quickly becomes completely unreadable (a blackened, jumbled mess) if you try to insert any text into existing text. In my case the problem arises in Windows 11 Pro, version 24H2, OS Build 26100.6899. Other details are the same: It happens in a CPropertySheet dialog in a C++/MFC/Win32 desktop application, where you have a multiline edit control. I have reported this to Microsoft here: https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/t/Recent-Windows-update-cause-multiline-ed/10986471?port=1027&fsid=20bb933a-c1e9-4851-b8dc-511cd23c1489&ref=native&refTime=1761151408717&refUserId=f8a0b681-3fdd-4f95-80ea-a7e4af8c3bd2
It is currently flagged as "Under Consideration".
I also created a demo app to illustrate the problem. I have tried all sorts of experiments with the demo app, and so far have not found any way to prevent the problem occurring - if you have a CPropertySheet/CPropertyPage tabbed dialog, and a multiline edit control.
I don't have any solution or workaround. Just hoping Microsoft can fix this v. quickly. I have an app out there with tens of thousands of users and some of them are already complaining about this.