Save HBITMAP to *.bmp file using only Win32

There is no API to save into file directly because, generally, having a bitmap handle does not mean you have direct access to bitmap data. Your solution is to copy bitmap into another bitmap with data access (DIB) and then using it data to write into file.

You typically either create another bitmap using CreateDIBSection, or you get bitmap data with GetDIBits.

CreateFile, WriteFile writes data into file.

You write: BITMAPFILEHEADER, then BITMAPINFOHEADER, then palette (which you typically don't have when bits/pixel is over 8), then data itself.

See also:

• C++: Hbitmap/BITMAP into .bmp file (this answer)
• Saving .bmp file using hBitmap = CreateDIBSection() in C Win32
• Storing an Image on MSDN

The Code

This is the code from the MSDN article (Note that you need to define the errhandler() function):

PBITMAPINFO CreateBitmapInfoStruct(HWND hwnd, HBITMAP hBmp)
{ 
    BITMAP bmp; 
    PBITMAPINFO pbmi; 
    WORD    cClrBits; 

    // Retrieve the bitmap color format, width, and height.  
    if (!GetObject(hBmp, sizeof(BITMAP), (LPSTR)&bmp)) 
        errhandler("GetObject", hwnd); 

    // Convert the color format to a count of bits.  
    cClrBits = (WORD)(bmp.bmPlanes * bmp.bmBitsPixel); 
    if (cClrBits == 1) 
        cClrBits = 1; 
    else if (cClrBits <= 4) 
        cClrBits = 4; 
    else if (cClrBits <= 8) 
        cClrBits = 8; 
    else if (cClrBits <= 16) 
        cClrBits = 16; 
    else if (cClrBits <= 24) 
        cClrBits = 24; 
    else cClrBits = 32; 

    // Allocate memory for the BITMAPINFO structure. (This structure  
    // contains a BITMAPINFOHEADER structure and an array of RGBQUAD  
    // data structures.)  

    if (cClrBits < 24) 
        pbmi = (PBITMAPINFO) LocalAlloc(LPTR, 
        sizeof(BITMAPINFOHEADER) + 
        sizeof(RGBQUAD) * (1<< cClrBits)); 

    // There is no RGBQUAD array for these formats: 24-bit-per-pixel or 32-bit-per-pixel 

    else 
        pbmi = (PBITMAPINFO) LocalAlloc(LPTR, 
        sizeof(BITMAPINFOHEADER)); 

    // Initialize the fields in the BITMAPINFO structure.  

    pbmi->bmiHeader.biSize = sizeof(BITMAPINFOHEADER); 
    pbmi->bmiHeader.biWidth = bmp.bmWidth; 
    pbmi->bmiHeader.biHeight = bmp.bmHeight; 
    pbmi->bmiHeader.biPlanes = bmp.bmPlanes; 
    pbmi->bmiHeader.biBitCount = bmp.bmBitsPixel; 
    if (cClrBits < 24) 
        pbmi->bmiHeader.biClrUsed = (1<<cClrBits); 

    // If the bitmap is not compressed, set the BI_RGB flag.  
    pbmi->bmiHeader.biCompression = BI_RGB; 

    // Compute the number of bytes in the array of color  
    // indices and store the result in biSizeImage.  
    // The width must be DWORD aligned unless the bitmap is RLE 
    // compressed. 
    pbmi->bmiHeader.biSizeImage = ((pbmi->bmiHeader.biWidth * cClrBits +31) & ~31) /8
        * pbmi->bmiHeader.biHeight; 
    // Set biClrImportant to 0, indicating that all of the  
    // device colors are important.  
    pbmi->bmiHeader.biClrImportant = 0; 
    return pbmi; 
} 

void CreateBMPFile(HWND hwnd, LPTSTR pszFile, PBITMAPINFO pbi, 
                   HBITMAP hBMP, HDC hDC) 
{ 
    HANDLE hf;                 // file handle  
    BITMAPFILEHEADER hdr;       // bitmap file-header  
    PBITMAPINFOHEADER pbih;     // bitmap info-header  
    LPBYTE lpBits;              // memory pointer  
    DWORD dwTotal;              // total count of bytes  
    DWORD cb;                   // incremental count of bytes  
    BYTE *hp;                   // byte pointer  
    DWORD dwTmp; 

    pbih = (PBITMAPINFOHEADER) pbi; 
    lpBits = (LPBYTE) GlobalAlloc(GMEM_FIXED, pbih->biSizeImage);

    if (!lpBits) 
        errhandler("GlobalAlloc", hwnd); 

    // Retrieve the color table (RGBQUAD array) and the bits  
    // (array of palette indices) from the DIB.  
    if (!GetDIBits(hDC, hBMP, 0, (WORD) pbih->biHeight, lpBits, pbi, 
        DIB_RGB_COLORS)) 
    {
        errhandler("GetDIBits", hwnd); 
    }

    // Create the .BMP file.  
    hf = CreateFile(pszFile, 
        GENERIC_READ | GENERIC_WRITE, 
        (DWORD) 0, 
        NULL, 
        CREATE_ALWAYS, 
        FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL, 
        (HANDLE) NULL); 
    if (hf == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) 
        errhandler("CreateFile", hwnd); 
    hdr.bfType = 0x4d42;        // 0x42 = "B" 0x4d = "M"  
    // Compute the size of the entire file.  
    hdr.bfSize = (DWORD) (sizeof(BITMAPFILEHEADER) + 
        pbih->biSize + pbih->biClrUsed 
        * sizeof(RGBQUAD) + pbih->biSizeImage); 
    hdr.bfReserved1 = 0; 
    hdr.bfReserved2 = 0; 

    // Compute the offset to the array of color indices.  
    hdr.bfOffBits = (DWORD) sizeof(BITMAPFILEHEADER) + 
        pbih->biSize + pbih->biClrUsed 
        * sizeof (RGBQUAD); 

    // Copy the BITMAPFILEHEADER into the .BMP file.  
    if (!WriteFile(hf, (LPVOID) &hdr, sizeof(BITMAPFILEHEADER), 
        (LPDWORD) &dwTmp,  NULL)) 
    {
        errhandler("WriteFile", hwnd); 
    }

    // Copy the BITMAPINFOHEADER and RGBQUAD array into the file.  
    if (!WriteFile(hf, (LPVOID) pbih, sizeof(BITMAPINFOHEADER) 
        + pbih->biClrUsed * sizeof (RGBQUAD), 
        (LPDWORD) &dwTmp, ( NULL)))
        errhandler("WriteFile", hwnd); 

    // Copy the array of color indices into the .BMP file.  
    dwTotal = cb = pbih->biSizeImage; 
    hp = lpBits; 
    if (!WriteFile(hf, (LPSTR) hp, (int) cb, (LPDWORD) &dwTmp,NULL)) 
        errhandler("WriteFile", hwnd); 

    // Close the .BMP file.  
    if (!CloseHandle(hf)) 
        errhandler("CloseHandle", hwnd); 

    // Free memory.  
    GlobalFree((HGLOBAL)lpBits);
}

Yet another minimalistic option is to use OLE's IPicture. It's always been around, still a part of Win32 API:

#define _S(exp) (([](HRESULT hr) { if (FAILED(hr)) _com_raise_error(hr); return hr; })(exp));

PICTDESC pictdesc = {};
pictdesc.cbSizeofstruct = sizeof(pictdesc);
pictdesc.picType = PICTYPE_BITMAP;
pictdesc.bmp.hbitmap = hBitmap;

CComPtr<IPicture> picture;
_S( OleCreatePictureIndirect(&pictdesc, __uuidof(IPicture), FALSE, (LPVOID*)&picture) );

// Save to a stream

CComPtr<IStream> stream;
_S( CreateStreamOnHGlobal(NULL, TRUE, &stream) );
LONG cbSize = 0;
_S( picture->SaveAsFile(stream, TRUE, &cbSize) );

// Or save to a file

CComPtr<IPictureDisp> disp;
_S( picture->QueryInterface(&disp) );
_S( OleSavePictureFile(disp, CComBSTR("C:\\Temp\\File.bmp")) );