If you’re building with the Windows SDK build environment or with a Visual Studio Express version and seeing error C1083: cannot open include file: ‘altbase.h’ (or winres.h, afxwin.h, afxres.h, atlconv.h) you probably need to buy and install a non-Express version of Visual Studio to successfully build your project. These are ATL and MFC files, which do not ship in the Express versions of Visual Studio. 

 

What’s ATL? The Active Template Library (ATL) is a set of template-based C++ classes that let you create small, fast Component Object Model (COM) objects. It has special support for key COM features, including stock implementations, dual interfaces, standard COM enumerator interfaces, connection points, tear-off interfaces, and ActiveX controls.

 

What’s MFC? The Microsoft Foundation Class Library (MFC) is a set of classes in that constitute an application framework, which is the framework of an application written for the Windows API.