diff --git a/windows/utils/getdlgitemtext_alloc.c b/windows/utils/getdlgitemtext_alloc.c
index 8de62a3b..0fa24736 100644
--- a/windows/utils/getdlgitemtext_alloc.c
+++ b/windows/utils/getdlgitemtext_alloc.c
@@ -10,26 +10,18 @@
 
 char *GetDlgItemText_alloc(HWND hwnd, int id)
 {
-    char *ret = NULL;
-    size_t size = 0;
-
-    do {
-        sgrowarray_nm(ret, size, size);
-        GetDlgItemText(hwnd, id, ret, size);
-    } while (!memchr(ret, '\0', size-1));
-
-    return ret;
+    HWND item = GetDlgItem(hwnd, id);
+    size_t size = GetWindowTextLengthA(item) + 1;
+    char *text = snewn(size, char);
+    GetWindowTextA(item, text, size);
+    return text;
 }
 
 wchar_t *GetDlgItemTextW_alloc(HWND hwnd, int id)
 {
-    wchar_t *ret = NULL;
-    size_t size = 0;
-
-    do {
-        sgrowarray_nm(ret, size, size);
-        GetDlgItemTextW(hwnd, id, ret, size);
-    } while (!wmemchr(ret, L'\0', size-1));
-
-    return ret;
+    HWND item = GetDlgItem(hwnd, id);
+    size_t size = GetWindowTextLengthW(item) + 1;
+    wchar_t *text = snewn(size, wchar_t);
+    GetWindowTextW(item, text, size);
+    return text;
 }