Hi all,

I apologise if this is an obvious n00b question. I've used C++ before but on Linux with g++ and Vim, so I've no experience with Visual C++. I have the 2008 Express edition on Windows Vista and it won't let me create a new project.

After starting up Visual C++ I select File > New > Project from the menu, which gives me a dialog window with eight different Visual Studio installed templates to choose from. For each one I select, I enter a project name, press OK then either one of two things happens:

a) Nothing happens

b) Another dialog window comes up with the title "Welcome to the Win32 Application Wizard". This has a panel that says "These are the current project settings" and there are three bullet points underneath, but they don't have any text. If I press either the "Finish" or "Cancel" buttons nothing happens, so I then have to close the window with its close icon.

If I select File > New > File then "C++ file (.cpp)" it'll let me open and enter a new file but then won't give me the option to run it using "Start without debugging (Ctrl + F5)".

Any ideas? Am I missing something obvious? The frustrating thing is that I also have Visual C# 2008 Express edition installed and that runs fine.