msdos character mode console programming- multiple windows

Hi , New to cfanatic... I hope this is the correct forum.
I am trying to find out the options available to create 'status' and 'menu' subwindows to a main ConsoleWindow. (I guess you'd call it, I get confused between that and ConsoleScreen) I had done something similar in ncurses a few months ago.
I have gone through the tutorial at: 'http://adrianxw.dk/SoftwareSite/index.html' but it stops just short of this type of thing. I am now trudging through msdn (again) and need some direction!

So far I feel I could print stuff to different areas of the screen and try to not overwrite one with the other but it seems there would be a different method. I last tried using CreateConsoleScreenBuffer for a second screen but actually messed up my laptop's video driver when sizing it different from the first screen buffer.... so I'm staying away from trying that but I am thinking about using that second buffer as an overlay and switching active... I don't know,,, msdn is overwhelming and cryptic ,, and so I'm asking...
Thanks, Howard;