I'm pretty sure there is lib out there for "... Visual C++ 2010 toolset..." that provides an alternative for printf but it's not up to me to decide.
Have I lately made the impression of not liking printf? Just unintentional

As for the original case you're right, missed your "#" quote. Does it make sense to you to exclude zero? Is there a reason I'm not aware of why this is necessary? Cause it's "0", not "" and each color channel ranges from 0x00 to 0xFF meaning zero is not that rare. Thanks for clarifying the second pa...

h := Format("{:#08X} {:#08x} {:#06x} {:#08x} {:#06x} 0x{:06x} ", 0, 1, 1, 0xffffff, 0xffffff, 0) i := Format("{:04} {:04} {:04} ", 4, +4, -4) MsgBox %h%`n%i% ; 00000000 0x000001 0x0001 0xffffff 0xffffff 0x000000 ; 0004 0004 00-4 Format("{1:#08x}", 0) doesn't insert x or X but 0. For any positive nu...

Just a side note: "password 6 to 100 characters" wasn't working. At least not when I used 36 characters. Had to shorten the password.