File size is larger than it should, extra new lines are added

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C++

WinAPI

INTRODUCTION:

I am reading from text file with ReadFile. Buffer passed to ReadFile is sent to standard output with cout. Standard output is redirected to a text file.

PROBLEM:

Although my code "works", no data is lost, resulting file is larger than the original one.

When opened in notepad, everything seems fine, but when opened in Notepad++ I can clearly see extra lines added. These lines are new lines (\n).

MVCE that reproduces this behavior is submitted below.

#include <iostream>
#include <windows.h>

int main()
{
    HANDLE hFile = ::CreateFile("C:\\123.txt", 
        GENERIC_READ,
        FILE_SHARE_READ | 
        FILE_SHARE_WRITE | 
        FILE_SHARE_DELETE,
        NULL, 
        OPEN_EXISTING, 
        FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL, 
        NULL);

    if (INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE == hFile) 
        return ::GetLastError();

    char buffer[256];
    DWORD bytesRead = 1,  // dummy value so while loop can work
        bytesWritten = 0; // needed for WriteFile, not for cout version

    //======== so WriteFile outputs to console, not needed for cout version
    HANDLE hStandardOutput = ::GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE);

    if (INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE == hStandardOutput)
    {
        std::cout << "GetStdHandle error code = " << ::GetLastError() << std::endl;
        ::CloseHandle(hFile);
        return ::GetLastError();
    }
    //============================
    while(bytesRead)
    {
        // '\0' terminate buffer, needed for cout only
        ::memset(buffer, '\0', sizeof(buffer)); 

        if (!::ReadFile(hFile, 
            buffer, 
            sizeof(buffer) - 1, // - 1 for '\0', not needed when using WriteFile
            &bytesRead, NULL))
        {
            std::cout << "ReadFile error code = " << ::GetLastError() << std::endl;
            break;
        }
        /*============= Works fine
        if(!::WriteFile(hStandardOutput, buffer, bytesRead, &bytesWritten, NULL))
        {
            std::cout << "WriteFile error code = " << ::GetLastError() << std::endl;
            break;
        }*/
        //------------- comment out when testing WriteFile 
        std::cout << buffer;  // extra lines...
        // std::cout.write(buffer, bytesRead); // extra lines as well...
        //----------------------------------------
    }
    ::CloseHandle(hFile);
    return 0;
}

QUESTION:

What is causing above described behavior? How to fix it?

What I have tried:

As I type this post I am Googling aimlessly, hoping for some clue to show up.

I suspect that the problem lies when outputting \n, it seems that Windows inserts \r as well, but I am not sure.