BUG: CodeView for Windows Displays "Unsupported Video Mode"

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft CodeView for Windows, version 4.1
• The Visual Workbench included with:

        - Microsoft Visual C++ for Windows, versions 1.0 and 1.5
  

SYMPTOMS

The Visual Workbench comes with a customizable menu to start different applications such as App Studio and CodeView. These customizations are set up by choosing Options from the Tools menu. If the command line for CodeView for Windows uses the argument line "$(TARGET) /2" to enter CodeView in dual-monitor mode, invoking CodeView for Windows with a project loaded in the Visual Workbench causes the following message box to appear:

              Codeview Exiting

     Unsupported Video Mode. Try CVW.EXE

           CVW is already running

NOTE: A project must be loaded for this behavior to occur.

CAUSE

CodeView for Windows is not parsing the command line properly when the $(TARGET) /2 option is used. This same behavior can be reproduced by starting CodeView for Windows from File Manager or Program Manager using the same syntax, but supplying a real .EXE name in place of "$(TARGET)".

Because CodeView requires the /2 option to be placed before the target name, CodeView should simply ignore the /2 option. If the $(TARGET) /2 command line is used with CodeView for MS-DOS, it properly ignores the /2, and these error messages do not appear.

NOTE: In all cases, if no project has been loaded (that is, no target has been specified), CodeView correctly ignores the $(TARGET) field and starts in dual-monitor mode.

RESOLUTION

Always put CodeView command-line switches before the target name. If you have already encountered the message boxes listed above, restarting Windows and invoking CodeView using the /2 $(TARGET) command line will properly start CodeView in dual-monitor mode.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a bug in the products listed at the beginning of this article. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

MORE INFORMATION

To reproduce the problem, do the following:

NOTE: It is not necessary to have a second monitor to reproduce the error messages using the /2 option.

1. From the Visual Workbench, select Options from the Tools menu.

2. From the Tools dialog box, select CodeView for Windows.

3. Change the arguments to read:

            $(TARGET) /2
   
      Choose the "OK" button.
   
   

4. With a Windows project loaded in the Workbench, select CodeView for Windows from the Tools menu. The first message box described above ("Codeview Exiting/Unsupported Video Mode. Try CVW.EXE") appears. Choose the "OK" button.

5. Bring up the Tools dialog box again. Reverse the order of the arguments:

            /2 $(TARGET)
   
      Choose the "OK" button.
   
   

6. Start CodeView for Windows from the Tools menu again. The second message box described above ("CVW is already running") appears.

7. Exit Windows to remove CodeView for Windows from memory.