Low-Level Console I/O

The low-level console I/O functions expand an application's control over console I/O by enabling direct access to a console's input and screen buffers. These functions enable an application to perform the following tasks:

• Receive input about mouse and buffer-resizing events
• Receive extended information about keyboard input events
• Write input records to the input buffer
• Read input records without removing them from the input buffer
• Determine the number of pending events in the input buffer
• Flush the input buffer
• Read and write strings of Unicode or ANSI characters at a specified location in a screen buffer
• Read and write strings of text and background color attributes at a specified screen buffer location
• Read and write rectangular blocks of character and color data at a specified screen buffer location
• Write a single Unicode or ANSI character, or a text and background color attribute combination, to a specified number of consecutive cells beginning at a specified screen buffer location