How do I deal with placeholders for Win32 error messages?

Question

I would like to present meaningful error messages when my program encounters Win32 errors. I call GetLastError, and then FormatMessage. But some of the error messages contain placeholders. For instance, ERROR_BAD_EXE_FORMAT has the text:

%1 is not a valid Win32 application.

Presumably, the %1 is meant to be replaced by the name of the module which is not valid. How can I effect that replacement?

Note that I would ideally like a general solution because I note that there are many errors with placeholders. I can see the following messages in the documentation:

• The wrong diskette is in the drive. Insert %2 (Volume Serial Number: %3) into drive %1.
• The operating system cannot run %1.
• This version of %1 is not compatible with the version of Windows you're running. Check your computer's system information and then contact the software publisher.
• The image file %1 is signed, unable to modify.
• The system cannot find message text for message number 0x%1 in the message file for %2.
• ... and so on.

Answer 1

I think Raymond Chen effectively answers the question in a comment on his blog where he writes:

It bugs me too that system error messages contain %1 insertions that you just have to "know" on a case-by-case basis.

Answer 2

ERROR_BAD_EXE_FORMAT contains an insertion %1. You can replace that by using last parameter of FormatMessage(). This code a little sample.

LPWSTR pMessage = L"%1";
DWORD_PTR pArgs[] = {(DWORD_PTR)L"My_Test_App.exe" }; 

TCHAR buffer[1024];
DWORD dwError = ERROR_BAD_EXE_FORMAT;
DWORD dwFlags = FORMAT_MESSAGE_FROM_SYSTEM | FORMAT_MESSAGE_ARGUMENT_ARRAY;
DWORD dwResult = FormatMessage(dwFlags, pMessage, dwError, 0, buffer, 1024,  (va_list*)pArgs);
if (dwResult) 
{
    //now, 'buffer' contains below message.

    //
    //My_Test_App.exe is not a valid Win32 application.
    //
}

I know that some sytem error codes have insertion. I think we can't supply relevant argument for all of them. So, if I were you, I would like to use just system error code, not FormatMessage(). Or, support argument list and FormatMessage()for only some frequently system error code.