Question

I just installed windows 7 and because I wish to learn more C/C++ I’ve tried to install VS 2008 or VS2010 beta. On both of them I get the same message error. I had only one version of each one installed at one time.

this is my code:

#include <stdio.h> 
int main(){
 printf("hello world");
 return 0;
}

but when I hit debug, I get the following message:

Unable to start program ‘c:\users….\Debug\helloworld.exe’.
The system cannot find the file
specified.

Answer 1

It looks to me like your problem is more with output file destinations or the %PATH% environment variable than Visual Studio — your .vcproj is depositing the .exe, or some file upon which it depends, where the debugger can’t find it.

My first suggestion is to look at the “Debugger” settings of that project’s Properties, and make sure that it’s running from the correct Working Directory — that is to say, that its working directory is the same place that the .vcproj is configured to put the compiled .exe.