Change entire console background color (Win32 C++)

Try something like:

system("color c2");

I think the FillConsoleOutputAttribute function will do what you need. Set it to the starting coordinate of the console, and set nLength to the number of characters in the console (width * length).

BOOL WINAPI FillConsoleOutputAttribute(
  __in   HANDLE hConsoleOutput,
  __in   WORD wAttribute,
  __in   DWORD nLength,
  __in   COORD dwWriteCoord,
  __out  LPDWORD lpNumberOfAttrsWritten
);

I know this is an old question, but how about this code:

#include <windows.h>
#include <iostream>


VOID WINAPI SetConsoleColors(WORD attribs);


int main() {

    SetConsoleColors(BACKGROUND_BLUE | FOREGROUND_RED | FOREGROUND_INTENSITY);

    std::cout << "Hello, world!" << std::endl;
    std::cin.get();

    return 0;
}


VOID WINAPI SetConsoleColors(WORD attribs) {
    HANDLE hOutput = GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE);

    CONSOLE_SCREEN_BUFFER_INFOEX cbi;
    cbi.cbSize = sizeof(CONSOLE_SCREEN_BUFFER_INFOEX);
    GetConsoleScreenBufferInfoEx(hOutput, &cbi);
    cbi.wAttributes = attribs;
    SetConsoleScreenBufferInfoEx(hOutput, &cbi);
}

As far as I know this code should work on Windows Vista and later versions. By the way, this code is based on this article (mainly the sources on the article): http://cecilsunkure.blogspot.fi/2011/12/windows-console-game-set-custom-color.html