I should have gone back by one more version... When I test the issue with Laz 1.6.4 I do see the italic texthint, and there are additional properties TextHintFontColor and TextHintFontStyle. The svn commit notes of r53365 (Nov 14, 2016) say: "rewrite TextHint emulation, use WinAPI if available." This means that now the TextHint follows the Lazarus idea to use the widgetset as much as possible to control the appearance and behaviour of the controls. In widgetsets where the TEdit does not have a TextHint it is emulated., in the others (Win10, definitely) the native TextHint is used. I guess there is not much that can be done against it.