Visual Express 2012 C++ error LNK2001 - c++

Question

I am aware that this is a common error. I have been trying to resolve this for about a week now. I am using Visual Express 2012 and coding in C++. I start a new, but empy, win32 application. I then add a UI form to the project. In the solution there is a header file and a cpp file that I am working with. When I try and compile I get a error LNK2001 and LNK1120.
Error 1 error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol
__tWinMain C:\Users\Me\Desktop\visual c++ workspace\winFormExp01\LINK winFormExp01
Error 2 error LNK1120: 1 unresolved
externals C:\Users\Me\Desktop\visual c++
workspace\winFormExp01\Debug\winFormExp01.exe winFormExp01
The Header file:
#pragma once
namespace winFormExp01 {
using namespace System;
using namespace System::ComponentModel;
using namespace System::Collections;
using namespace System::Windows::Forms;
using namespace System::Data;
using namespace System::Drawing;
/// <summary>
/// Summary for MyForm
/// </summary>
public ref class MyForm : public System::Windows::Forms::Form
{
public:
MyForm(void)
{
InitializeComponent();
//
//TODO: Add the constructor code here
//
}
protected:
/// <summary>
/// Clean up any resources being used.
/// </summary>
~MyForm()
{
if (components)
{
delete components;
}
}
private:
/// <summary>
/// Required designer variable.
/// </summary>
System::ComponentModel::Container ^components;
#pragma region Windows Form Designer generated code
/// <summary>
/// Required method for Designer support - do not modify
/// the contents of this method with the code editor.
/// </summary>
void InitializeComponent(void)
{
this->SuspendLayout();
//
// MyForm
//
this->AutoScaleDimensions = System::Drawing::SizeF(6, 13);
this->AutoScaleMode = System::Windows::Forms::AutoScaleMode::Font;
this->ClientSize = System::Drawing::Size(284, 262);
this->Name = L"MyForm";
this->Text = L"MyForm";
this->Load += gcnew System::EventHandler(this, &MyForm::MyForm_Load);
this->ResumeLayout(false);
}
#pragma endregion
private: System::Void MyForm_Load(System::Object^ sender, System::EventArgs^ e) {
}
};
}
The cpp file:
#include "MyForm.h"
using namespace System;
using namespace System::Windows::Forms;
[STAThread]
int Main(array<String^>^ args)
{
Application::EnableVisualStyles();
Application::SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);
winFormExp01::MyForm form;
Application::Run(%form);
return 0;
}
I am trying to get a basic windows application running with as little fat as possible. All help is very much appreciated. Thanks!

Answer 1

you have to use WinMain instead of main.
im not sure what WinMain should look like, but if you create a new 'Windows application', or 'Windows Forms' project from the templates, hopefully one of them will have it in it and you can copy the WinMain function deceleration.
you could try this?
void __stdcall WinMain(HINSTANCE hInstance,
HINSTANCE hPrevInstance,
long lpCmdLine,
int nCmdShow)

Answer 2

The starting address is a function name from the C run-time library. The linker selects it according to the attributes of the program.
mainCRTStartup (or wmainCRTStartup) An application using /SUBSYSTEM:CONSOLE;
calls main (or wmain)
WinMainCRTStartup (or wWinMainCRTStartup) An application using /SUBSYSTEM:WINDOWS;
calls WinMain (or wWinMain), which must be defined with __stdcall
So, the linker is looking for WinMain in your program which it doesn't find and complains about.