Menu disappears after running program later - c++

Question

Okay, so at first when i run my win32 program the menu works fine, however when i open the application later the next day or such the menu is gone but the code never changed. im making the menu with a .rc file. is this the recommended way?
resource.rc
#include "resource.h"
IDR_MYMENU MENU
BEGIN
POPUP "&File"
BEGIN
MENUITEM "E&xit", ID_FILE_EXIT
END
END
resource.h
#define IDR_MYMENU 101
#define IDI_MYICON 201
#define ID_FILE_EXIT 9001
#define ID_STUFF_GO 9002
main.cpp
#include "resource.h"
wincl.lpszMenuName = MAKEINTRESOURCE(IDR_MYMENU);
also i noticed that MSVC++ has a very very complex windows templates, vs bloodshed. should i maybe give up on bloodshed and use MSVC++? I am use to blooshed, but i want to have an edge when i finally learn this stuff?
HWND hwnd; /* This is the handle for our window */
MSG messages; /* Here messages to the application are saved */
WNDCLASSEX wincl; /* Data structure for the windowclass */
/* The Window structure */
wincl.hInstance = hThisInstance;
wincl.lpszClassName = szClassName;
wincl.lpfnWndProc = WindowProcedure; /* This function is called by windows */
wincl.style = CS_DBLCLKS; /* Catch double-clicks */
wincl.cbSize = sizeof (WNDCLASSEX);
/* Use default icon and mouse-pointer */
wincl.hIcon = LoadIcon (GetModuleHandle(NULL), MAKEINTRESOURCE(IDI_MYICON));
wincl.hIconSm = (HICON) LoadImage(GetModuleHandle(NULL), MAKEINTRESOURCE(IDI_MYICON), IMAGE_ICON, 16, 16 ,0);
wincl.hCursor = LoadCursor (NULL, IDC_CROSS);
wincl.lpszMenuName = MAKEINTRESOURCE(IDR_MYMENU); /* No menu */
wincl.cbClsExtra = 0; /* No extra bytes after the window class */
wincl.cbWndExtra = 0; /* structure or the window instance */
/* Use Windows's default color as the background of the window */
wincl.hbrBackground = (HBRUSH) GetStockObject(BLACK_BRUSH);
/* Register the window class, and if it fails quit the program */
if (!RegisterClassEx (&wincl))
return 0;
/* The class is registered, let's create the program*/
hwnd = CreateWindowEx (
0, /* Extended possibilites for variation */
szClassName, /* Classname */
"Windows App", /* Title Text */
WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW, /* default window */
CW_USEDEFAULT, /* Windows decides the position */
CW_USEDEFAULT, /* where the window ends up on the screen */
544, /* The programs width */
375, /* and height in pixels */
HWND_DESKTOP, /* The window is a child-window to desktop */
NULL, /* No menu */
hThisInstance, /* Program Instance handler */
NULL /* No Window Creation data */
);

Answer 1

The content of your RC file looks fine, so I don't think the problem is there. I doubt the problem is in Bloodshed either -- while I'm not particularly fond of Dev-C++, I doubt it's causing anything like this. That leaves your code for the application as the most likely culprit for causing the problem. Unfortunately, you haven't shown enough of that to even guess at likely sources of the problem.