Remy's suggestion that I answer the question is good, I will try here:

By changing from IDC_STATIC to a control I generated named IDS_VERSION I could then define the string.

In the About window I used this code:

LoadStringW(hInst, IDS_VERSION, szVerW, MAX_LOADSTRING);
SetDlgItemText(hDlg, IDS_VERSION, szVerW);

For use in the logfile I used this code:

LoadStringA(hInstance, IDS_VERSION, szVersion, MAX_LOADSTRING);

Once done, I could extract the same string for my log file and use it in the about dialog.

Thanks to all, -Tom