PRB: Fatal Resource Compiler Errors RW1016 and C1023

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft Resource Compiler (RC.EXE), included with Microsoft Visual C++ for Windows, versions 1.5 and 1.51

SYMPTOMS

When building an application written in Visual C++ version 1.5 or 1.51 under Windows NT, you may see the following error messages:

  RC : fatal error RW1016: RC terminating after preprocessor errors
  fatal error C1023: cannot open source file {resource file name}
  RC returned error code 1.

CAUSE

RC.EXE fails because there are not enough file handles allocated to the Virtual DOS Machine (VDM) in which the resource compiler is running.

RC.EXE is an MS-DOS-based application. When it's launched, its VDM automatically uses \WINNT\SYSTEM32\CONFIG.NT to set up its environment unless a different startup file is specified in an application's .PIF file. If the FILES specification in the CONFIG.NT file is set too low, RC.EXE is prevented from opening the files it needs.

RESOLUTION

To fix this behavior, specify more file handles in the CONFIG.NT file. CONFIG.NT is located in the \WINNT\SYSTEM32 directory (WINNT is the directory where Windows NT is installed).