A display context is a special set of values that applications use for drawing in the client area of their windows. Windows requires a display context for each window on the system display but allows some flexibility in how that display context is stored and treated by the system.
If no display-context style is explicitly given, Windows assumes that each win-dow will use a display context retrieved from a pool of contexts maintained by Windows. In such cases, each window must retrieve and initialize the display context before painting, and then free it after painting.
To avoid retrieving a display context each time it needs to paint inside a window, an application can specify the CS_OWNDC style for the window class. This class style directs Windows to create a private display context—that is, to allocate a unique display context for each window in the class. The application need only retrieve the context once, and then use it for all subsequent painting. Although the CS_OWNDC style is convenient, it must be used carefully because each display context uses a significant amount of system resources.
By specifying the CS_CLASSDC style, an application can have some of the convenience of a private display context without allocating a separate display context for each window. The CS_CLASSDC style directs Windows to create a single class display context—that is, one display context to be shared by all windows in the class. An application need only retrieve the display context for a window; as long as no other window in the class retrieves that display context, the window can continue to use the context.
Similarly, by specifying the CS_PARENTDC style, an application can create child windows that inherit the device context of their parent. For more information about display contexts, see the Microsoft Windows Guide to Programming.