Compiled app doesn't work when opened with Visual Studio, but does with Windows Explorer

Pierro 0

Hello, I'm building a C .exe that I somehow can't launch correctly anymore through Visual studio green arrow button (and CTRL+F5), but I'm able to launch it successfully from windows explorer. When launched from Visual Studio 2022, the Icon and the name in the taskbar is correct, but nothing is visible.
The preview on hover shows a blank image. No shortcut is working, like alt tab, shift up, alt enter ... etc .

When launched from Windows Explorer, or cmd, it's displayed correctly. I'm sure that I'm opening the correct .exe because its date is updated right after a successfull build, and the behaviour follows what I'm coding.

Local debugger doesn't help at all. It shows that the app seems to be running. For information, the code is based on a classical win32 api, ex :

hWnd = CreateWindow(WindowClass, Title, WS_SYSMENU|WS_CAPTION|WS_MINIMIZEBOX|WS_DLGFRAME, windowX, windowY, width, height, NULL, NULL, hInstance, NULL)

The app is correctly working in the background but the GUI doesn't show.

RLWA32 44,931 Reputation points

2024-02-19T00:42:30.32+00:00

Can you share a minimal sample that reproduces the problem? The single line of code posted above does not provide much information. If you create a new project with the Windows Desktop Application template does it build and run correctly when launched within VS? From Explorer?
Tong Xu - MSFT 2,446 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2024-02-19T02:19:17.2666667+00:00

1.The values of width and height are default. They may be zero so that the window does not show. Please set numbers for width and height.
2.It is not recommended to open a single .exe app. It recompiled when you run it with Local windows Debugger. You can see the sample from visual studio. It is a full project of windows desktop application including many resources. Please refer to Your First Windows Program.
Pierro 0 Reputation points

2024-02-19T13:15:01.01+00:00

Thank you for your answers.

I'll try it this evening (UTC+1)

What's strange to me is that there's a different behaviour between launching (CTRL F5) from VS and from shell. If I start it from windows explorer my app is correctly displayed. That's the main thing I want to understand.

What's also strange is that my program was correctly showing few commits ago, and there's nothing related to the UI modified, ( I'll try it with previous version )

This was a pseudo code, as I have defined macros for the height. And I'm sure they aren't zero since it correctly works when launching from windows explorer.

If you want to see what does the code looks like, I'm on a local fork of https://github.com/joeyjojojunior/simFFB ( that had width and height inverted btw)

I obviously made some UI changes, but it works from windows, but not from VS "launch" green arrow, CTR+F5 ...

Thanks,

Pierre
Pierro 0 Reputation points

2024-02-19T13:15:25.75+00:00

Duplicate post, sorry I can't delete it.
RLWA32 44,931 Reputation points

2024-02-19T15:22:48.7266667+00:00

If you want to see what does the code looks like, I'm on a local fork of...> I obviously made some UI changes...

I'd be happy to look at your actual code, not something else that has already had changes made to it.
Viorel 116.6K Reputation points

2024-02-19T15:44:23.24+00:00

Probably the tmpopt.windowX or tmpopt.windowY, loaded from file, contained invalid values, because of file errors or an older version of file. The window was shown to an invisible location.

The compiler also displays some warnings, which should be solved.
Pierro 0 Reputation points

2024-02-19T19:44:47.7833333+00:00

Hey @Viorel , I think you were right.
I've added some robustness checks.

So this means that I wasnt loading the correct "option" file, as the behaviour was different between the two launch methods. I've added a print of the GetCurrentDirectory result, and the location of the exe corresponds to the $(SolutionDir). And the "option" file was created there.

I thought that it was using $(SolutionDir)$(Platform)$(Configuration)\ since the green arrows are adjacent to "platform" and "configuration" combo boxes. This was the cause of my problem.

But now, is there a way to modify this execution folder in the configuration properties ? I Didn't find it.
Pierro 0 Reputation points

2024-02-19T19:51:24.1733333+00:00

Wow I've lost the entire post I made ...Viorel, you were kind of right, here's what I've found investigating your comment. Even though the output path is : $(SolutionDir)$(Platform)$(Configuration)\ , the "current working directory" is $(SolutionDir)

This explains why I was getting different results.

This is strange because the green arrow button for launching the executable is right next to the configuration and platform combo box. This lead me to believe that it was launching from this configuration/platform.

Is this a VS limitation, or is there a way to configure it ? Maybe in the Solution properties ?
Tong Xu - MSFT 2,446 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2024-02-20T01:30:38.6466667+00:00

You can modify the Intermediate Directory in the .exe Debug Properties.
Viorel 116.6K Reputation points

2024-02-20T08:29:11.3166667+00:00

To set the directory for debugging, see the “Working Directory” setting in Project Properties, Configuration Properties, Debugging (for configurations and platforms).

However, since the current directory (returned by GetCurrentDirectory) is not fixed, you should probably build a path based on executable full path, or use the Windows special folders or environment variables that are reserved for data.
Tong Xu - MSFT 2,446 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2024-02-26T03:35:22.3233333+00:00

Any ideas on modifying the Intermediate Directory?
Tong Xu - MSFT 2,446 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2024-03-01T07:54:03.1+00:00

Hi, Pierro.
Has your problem solved?

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Compiled app doesn't work when opened with Visual Studio, but does with Windows Explorer

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