FAQ: Visual C++ 4.0 Frequently Asked Questions

• Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Edition, version 4.0

Q. I just ported my Visual C++ 2.x project to Visual C++ 4.0. What happened

   to my program group folders?

   creating groups and adding source files to them. Visual C++ 4.0 does not
   support this feature. If you convert a project from Visual C++ 2.x to
   Visual C++ 4.0, the newly created project will retain all settings for
   files in any Visual C++ 2.x groups, but it does not mark or group these
   files in any way. Developer Studio now supports multiple projects and
   subprojects, which may provide you with some grouping functionality. You
   can still set settings for multiple files by invoking the Project
   Settings dialog box and selecting multiple files from the "Settings
   For:" tree control.

Q. My video card supports 16K or more colors. Why can't Developer Studio

   open my 256 color bitmaps?

   support color setting configurations greater than 256 colors. If your
   video card is configured to display more than 256 colors and you attempt
   to open a 256 color bitmap, the following error message will be
   displayed:

   C:\filename.bmp
   Cannot load file

   The current display device does not support the palettes that are
   required for editing 256-color bitmaps. To work around this limitation,
   reset the Color Palette to 256 colors in the Control Panel's Display
   settings dialog box.

Q. Where is the documentation for the OLE Controls that ship with Visual

   C++ 4.0?

   Ctrlref.hlp and Vb.hlp help files located in the \Msdev\Help directory.
   To gain access to these help files from Developer Studio, use one of the
   following methods:

    - From the Component Gallery dialog box, select a specific control, and
      then click the help '?' button to invoke the help topic for the
      selected control.

      -or-

    - For help for a particular control, use the Dialog Editor. Place the
      desired control on a dialog box, and invoke the Properties dialog box
      for the control. Then click the Control tab from the Properties
      dialog box, and press F1.

      -or-

    - Add these help files to your F1 help in Developer Studio. Please see
      the \Msdev\Help\Exthelp.hlp help file for details on how to
      accomplish this.

Q. How do I prevent classes from being displayed in the ClassView pane of

   the Workspace window?

   to remove the header with the class declarations from the project's
   dependency list. To do this, follow these steps:

   1. Create a directory in which to relocate the header file(s) that you
      want to remove from the dependency list. For example:

      mkdir c:\msdev\projects\myproj\inc

   2. Move the header files to this new directory.

   3. Add this directory to your include search path by using the
      Directories page of the Options dialog box invoked by clicking
      Options on the Tools menu.

   4. Create a text file named Msvcincl.dat, and list the header files you
      want to exclude from the dependencies list. Do not include the path
      names to the header files. Save this file to your Windows directory.

   5. Close Developer Studio, and delete the project's .ncb file.

   6. Restart Developer Studio, and load your project. The classes declared
      in the headers listed in the Msvcincl.dat file should no longer
      appear in the ClassView pane.

      NOTE: The Msvcincl.dat file must be located in your Windows
      directory, and your #include directives must not specify a full
      pathname to these headers. Otherwise, these files will remain in the
      project's dependencies list.

Q. New projects created with Visual C++ 4.0 seem to build faster than

   projects ported from earlier versions of Visual C++. What can I do to
   decrease the build time for these older projects?

   macro definition for VC_EXTRALEAN to the project's precompiled header.
   This macro also defines the macros WIN32_LEAN_AND_MEAN and
   WIN32_EXTRA_LEAN. These macros define subsequent macros that exclude
   less-used declarations from the various Windows header files, to help
   speed compilation. For complete information on what these macros
   exclude, search the Windows.h and Afx_w32.h files for these symbols. To
   use this macro in your older projects, add the following to the top of
   your project's precompiled header file (typically Stdafx.h for most MFC
   applications):

   #define VC_EXTRALEAN

Q. Why aren't the breakpoints in my project being recognized?

A. Please read the "PRB: Breakpoints Won't Work - 11 Reasons Why" Microsoft

   Knowledge Base article located in Books Online. If you are attempting to
   debug an OLE control, make sure the debug version of the control is
   registered. If you build and register a release version of the control,
   and then attempt to debug the debug version of the control, the release
   version of the OLE Control will inadvertently be used.

Q. I inserted an OLE control into my project with Component Gallery, and

   now the compiler reports the following error messages when I attempt to
   build my project: "C2501: missing decl-specifier," "C2504: base class
   undefined," and "C2065: undeclared identifier." What's wrong with my
   project?

   application. You can easily add OLE control support to your existing
   project by using the Component Gallery. Just insert the OLE Control
   Containment component into your project. This will add an include
   statement for Afxdisp.h to the project's pre-compiled header, and a call
   to AfxEnableControlContainer() in your CWinApp-derived object's
   InitInstance() function. For additional information on how to use OLE
   controls in your application, please see the "OLE Control Containers:
   Inserting a Control into a Control Container Application" Help topic.

Q. Where are the .mak and/or .mdp files for the SDK samples in Help?

A. With the exception of the CROSSDEV samples, the Windows SDK samples do

   not ship with .mak or .mdp files. These samples are included directly
   from the Win32SDK samples. Each sample includes a makefile named
   MAKEFILE that can be used to build the accompanying sample. Upon
   attempting to open the MAKEFILE with Developer Studio, you will be
   prompted to wrap the existing makefile. If you continue, Developer
   Studio will create a new internal .mak file that will wrap the existing
   MAKEFILE. You can build the sample by using this new .mak file, or
   invoke NMAKE from a command prompt. To invoke NMAKE from a command
   prompt, you first need to change your current directory to the project
   directory, and you may need to run the \Msdev\Bin\Vcvars32.bat file to
   properly set up the environment.

   NOTE: If you wrap the MAKEFILE, you can add the source files to the new
   project to allow for easy viewing and editing.

Q. How do I create a subproject based on an existing project?

A. Visual C++ 4.0 does not support the creation of subprojects based on

   existing projects. For example, if you have an existing MFC DLL project
   that you would like to fold into an MFC application workspace, you can
   either create a new skeleton project and merge your existing sources
   with this new project, or you can use a batch file to change the working
   directory, and invoke NMAKE on the subproject you want to build. To
   accomplish this, do the following:

   1. On the Build menu, click Subprojects, and then click New.

   2. From the Insert Project dialog box, select a Project of type
      Makefile. Specify a project name and whether or not it's to become a
      subproject of an existing project.

   3. Click Create, and then click Yes. This takes you directly to the
      Project Settings dialog box for this new project.

   4. Specify a build command line to invoke a batch file for this new
      project. You will want to do this for both the debug and release
      configurations. Specify a unique batch file for each configuration
      you may have, or pass the required NMAKE command line options to the
      batch file, so you can support building your subproject for multiple
      targets using NMAKE macros.

   5. Write the batch file to change the working directory to that of the
      original project directory, and then invoke NMAKE on the project's
      .mak file.

Q. Why can't I edit EXE resources running Developer Studio under Windows

   95?

   .exe file but only under Windows NT. Windows NT provides APIs that allow
   you to modify resources in an executable (.exe) file or dynamic link
   library (.dll) file. Windows 95 does not support the APIs necessary to
   do this. For example, Windows 95 does not support BeginUpdateResource(),
   UpdateResource(), or EditUpdateResource(). When a resource is loaded
   under Windows 95, Developer Studio will issue the following warning:

   Microsoft Developer Studio cannot save the modified resources back to
   this executable. The executable may be in use, or this version of
   Windows may not support updated resources in executables.

   While the executable cannot be modified in Windows 95, the resources can
   be copied into an .rc file

Keywords          : VCGenIss kbtshoot kbfaq
Version           : WINNT:4.0;
Platform          : NT WINDOWS