Just in case you thought deprecated in Microsoftie speak did not mean unsupported, please attempt to create your DirectDraw interfaces.
Deprecated means just that. It may work but if not then you are on your own. Basically a device driver manufacturer is being told by Microsoft that they can implement new things in their drivers to support DirectGraphics and yet it does not matter if it breaks old DirectDraw interfaces. Hence deprecated means avoid like the plague unless you want your entire game engine and system dependent on interfaces that are not 100% guaranteed to work on every video card and system. DirectDraw is old, unreliable, deprecated, unsupported, and NOT guaranteed to work correctly ever again.
I stand by my suggestions. Do not use GDI and avoid DirectDraw like the plague. Use OpenGL or Direct3D combined with either DirectX or some third party utility libraries for sound, input, etc.
As for GDI I cannot imagine why anyone would torture themseles trying to use its convoluted DC's and so forth when you have Direct3D or OpenGL just begging to be used. And they are both much easier than any GDI select this into that for this purpose and then unselect...blah blah blah.
