Color console output with C++ in Windows

Question

Is there a way to output colored text to the console? I am using Visual Studio 2010, and only need the code to work in Windows.

I have been unsuccessful in finding anything except the windows COLOR command, but that changed the color for the entire screen, and I am looking for something that will change only the part I wish to output. I've seen it done in Managed C++

E.g.,

{color red}
cout << "Hello ";
{color blue}
cout << "world\n";

would yield "Hello world" in red and blue.

Answer 1

I took this code from here:

// color your text in Windows console mode
// colors are 0=black 1=blue 2=green and so on to 15=white
// colorattribute = foreground + background * 16
// to get red text on yellow use 4 + 14*16 = 228
// light red on yellow would be 12 + 14*16 = 236
// a Dev-C++ tested console application by vegaseat 07nov2004

#include <iostream>
#include <windows.h> // WinApi header

using namespace std; // std::cout, std::cin

int main()
{
HANDLE hConsole;
int k;

hConsole = GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE);

// you can loop k higher to see more color choices
for(k = 1; k < 255; k++)
{
// pick the colorattribute k you want
SetConsoleTextAttribute(hConsole, k);
cout << k << " I want to be nice today!" << endl;
}

cin.get(); // wait
return 0;
}