FAQ: Visual C++ 4.0 Frequently Asked Questions

ID: Q138735

The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Editions, 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?

A. With Visual C++ 2.x, you could organize files within a project by 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?

A. The Developer Studio bitmap editor in Visual C++ 4.0 does not currently 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?

A. The OLE Controls that ship with Visual C++ 4.0 are documented in the 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:

  1. 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-


  2. 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-


  3. 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?

A. To prevent classes from being displayed in the ClassView pane, you need 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?

A. In Visual C++ 4.0, wizard-generated applications automatically add a 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?

A. You probably didn't enable OLE control support when you first built your 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?

A. Developer Studio now supports the direct editing of resources within an .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 : kbtshoot kbGenInfo kbVC
Version : WINNT:4.0;
Platform : NT WINDOWS
Issue type :


Last Reviewed: July 19, 1999
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