oops, sorry ... i didnt pay attention to that it was about MS C++, i didnt even knew such an entity existed .. I stumbled once upon this article and just made a mental note of it if i''ll ever need somthing like that ... sorry again.
I tried it also now and it doesnt work like this in VC.
Of course startup code in there is totally different. Apparently, only important thing that differs for console and windowed application is linker switch /subsystem:windows/console, if this is not specified, then it links it depending on whether main or winmain is defined. IF BOTH are defined, it gives warning and defaults to CONSOLE.
As for getting hInstance, it seems that getmodulehandle is the only way to do it.

-kertropp