PRB: Failing to Initialize OLE Generates Out of Memory Error

• The Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) included with:

      - Microsoft Visual C++ for Windows, versions 1.5, 1.51, and 1.52
      - Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Edition, versions 2.0, 2.1,
        4.0, 4.1, 5.0
        on the following platform: x86
  

SYMPTOMS

If the OLE .DLL files are not initialized with a call to AfxOleInit(), subsequent OLE calls will fail. For 32-bit MFC applications, debug output sent to a debugging window may show these errors:

   Throwing exception of type COleException
   sCode = 0x8007000E E_OUTOFMEMORY

   -or-

   sCode = 0x80030008 STG_E_INSUFFICIENTMEMORY

   Throwing exception of type COleException
   sCode = 0x80000002 E_OUTOFMEMORY

   -or-

   sCode = 0x80030008 STG_E_INSUFFICIENTMEMORY

RESOLUTION

AfxOleInit() calls OleInitialize(LPMALLOC), which sets the task memory allocator used by OLE. If this is not done, OLE cannot perform memory allocations and any OLE calls will fail. Placing a call to AfxOleInit() in the InitInstance() of an MFC application will fix this problem. The first few lines from the InitInstance() of HIERSVR (MFC OLE sample provided with Visual C++) below, shows the proper syntax for calling AfxOleInit().

Sample Code

/* Compile options needed: standard MFC project
*/

    // OLE 2.0 initialization
    if (!AfxOleInit())
    {
        AfxMessageBox(IDP_OLE_INIT_FAILED);
        return FALSE;
    }

STATUS

This behavior is by design.

Keywords          : MfcOLE
Technology        : kbole kbMfc
Version           : Winnet:1.5,1.51,1.52,2.0,2.1,4.0,5.0
Platform          : NT WINDOWS
Hardware          : x86
Issue type        : kbprb