CreateWindowEx(): "Cannot find the file specified"

[matthias_k]

Hello,

Since hours I try to get my code running which is supposed to create a standard window using CreateWindowEx(). However, the returned handle is always NULL.

I called GetLastError() and received the error string. It reads:

"The system cannot find the file specified."

Uh, which file? The only files I'm implicitly dealing with are icon and cursor files. But I use default icons and I checked their handles in the debugger and everything seems to be okay. To be 100% sure I even created my own icons and loaded them using MAKEINTRESOURCE, but nope, still get this confusing error message. I couldn't create an own cursor file, but I tried to use other values like IDC_HAND, but again the same error.

I think I better post some code now:

HRESULT CMyApp::InitInstance()
{
	HRESULT hr = 0;

	WNDCLASSEX wc;
	ZeroMemory( &wc, sizeof( WNDCLASSEX ) );

	static TCHAR szClassName[] = _T("def_w32_app");

	wc.cbSize		 = sizeof( WNDCLASSEX );
	wc.hbrBackground = (HBRUSH) GetStockObject( COLOR_WINDOW );
	wc.hCursor		 = LoadCursor( NULL, IDC_ARROW );
	wc.hIcon		 = LoadIcon( NULL, IDI_APPLICATION );
	wc.hIconSm		 = wc.hIcon;
	wc.lpszMenuName  = NULL;
	wc.hInstance	 = GetInstance();
	wc.lpfnWndProc   = ::WindowProc;
	wc.lpszClassName = szClassName;
	wc.style		 = CS_HREDRAW | CS_VREDRAW | CS_OWNDC;

	hr = RegisterClassEx( &wc );
	if( FAILED( hr ) )
	{
		CError e;
		e.Display();

		return E_FAIL;
	}

	DWORD dwStyle   = WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW | WS_VISIBLE;
	DWORD dwExStyle = NULL;

	m_hWnd = CreateWindowEx( dwExStyle, szClassName, "Test Window", dwStyle, 100, 100, 800, 600, NULL, NULL, GetInstance(), NULL );

	if( m_hWnd == NULL )
	{
		CError e;
		e.Display();

		return E_FAIL;
	}

	return S_OK;
}

There you go, the whole function as it is now. GetInstance() returns a handle to the instance of the running program. I checked the value, it's okay. The CError class will only call GetLastError() and display a message box. Everything else should be self explanatory.

Any idea what's going wrong here?