What's modern about it? Also you could have used C++ instead to remove some potential issues, and those global variables...
Use std::string and std::array or std::list, some anonymous namespaces, remove all the malloc, etc. Your code would be half the size and still compile to the same assembly language without the bugs.
What about them? In a 500 loc app there is no practical difference and there's only ~20 of them with clear purpose.
> Use std::string <...> or std::list <...> remove all the malloc, etc
> still compile to the same assembly language without the bugs.
I see you have no clue what those things actually compile down to.
Already by Windows 95 timeframe, only C diehards would be writing Windows applications still in C instead of VB, Delphi and C++, as the more mainstream languages, there were obviously other ones to chose from as well.
While nothing is modern about this approach, if we're going the WINAPI route, there's very little to be gained by using std::string instead of the LPWSTR that WINAPI offers (and plays nicely with). I would definitely avoid plain C strings (char[]) but rather use the wide version (which is what LPWSTR is under the hood). But for std::array or std::list, I don't see how the codebase would vastly benefit from them.