Simple WinAPI app has an additional console window [duplicate] - c++

Question

This question already has answers here:
How to stop a program compiled with MinGW (g++) from opening a console window in windows
(2 answers)
Closed 9 years ago.
I've copy-pasted following skeleton of a simple C++ WinAPI application. It works, but creates an additional console window along with GUI one. How to get rid of it? I am using GCC from MinGW.
#include <windows.h>
LRESULT CALLBACK WndProc(HWND, UINT, WPARAM, LPARAM);
static char sClassName[] = "MyClass";
static HINSTANCE zhInstance = NULL;
int WINAPI WinMain(HINSTANCE hInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance, LPSTR lpCmdLine, int nCmdShow) {
WNDCLASSEX WndClass;
HWND hwnd;
MSG Msg;
zhInstance = hInstance;
WndClass.cbSize = sizeof(WNDCLASSEX);
WndClass.style = NULL;
WndClass.lpfnWndProc = WndProc;
WndClass.cbClsExtra = 0;
WndClass.cbWndExtra = 0;
WndClass.hInstance = zhInstance;
WndClass.hIcon = LoadIcon(NULL, IDI_APPLICATION);
WndClass.hCursor = LoadCursor(NULL, IDC_ARROW);
WndClass.hbrBackground = (HBRUSH)(COLOR_WINDOW+1);
WndClass.lpszMenuName = NULL;
WndClass.lpszClassName = sClassName;
WndClass.hIconSm = LoadIcon(NULL, IDI_APPLICATION);
if(!RegisterClassEx(&WndClass)) {
MessageBox(0, "Error Registering Class!", "Error!", MB_ICONSTOP | MB_OK);
return 0;
}
hwnd = CreateWindowEx(WS_EX_STATICEDGE, sClassName, "db Tutorial", WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW, CW_USEDEFAULT, CW_USEDEFAULT,
320, 240, NULL, NULL, zhInstance, NULL);
if(hwnd == NULL) {
MessageBox(0, "Error Creating Window!", "Error!", MB_ICONSTOP | MB_OK);
return 0;
}
ShowWindow(hwnd, nCmdShow);
UpdateWindow(hwnd);
while(GetMessage(&Msg, NULL, 0, 0)) {
TranslateMessage(&Msg);
DispatchMessage(&Msg);
}
return Msg.wParam;
}
LRESULT CALLBACK WndProc(HWND hwnd, UINT Message, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam) {
switch(Message) {
case WM_CLOSE:
DestroyWindow(hwnd);
break;
case WM_DESTROY:
PostQuitMessage(0);
break;
default:
return DefWindowProc(hwnd, Message, wParam, lParam);
}
return 0;
}

Answer 1

Just use the -mwindows option to compile a GUI application. The default, -mconsole, creates a console application.
The default heuristic used by the MS linker is: if your program has a main function it is a console program but if it has a WinMain function it is a GUI one. But that is not used by the GNU tools. They create a console program by default.