Win32 PrintDlg, PrintDlgEx, Crashing and quirkines

Question

I'm tasked with solving the following issue: My application crashes when running on a 64 bit machine when the PrintDlg() function is called.

After digging and hair pulling, I've decided the best solution is to replace the original calls of PrintDlg() with its bigger brother, PrintDlgEx().

Doing so fixes one problem (it no longer crashes!), but causes another. When I execute the code, it is not showing the print dialog, just returning a success code, and giving me all of the information for my default printer. I need this function to show the standard "print setup" window, I don't know how the heck to make it happen. Shown below are the sample values I'm trying to use to get my dialog to show.

Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.

//  Initialize the PRINTDLGEX structure.
pd2.lStructSize = sizeof(PRINTDLGEX);
pd2.hwndOwner = wnddata->wnd.hnd;
pd2.hDevMode = NULL;
pd2.hDevNames = NULL;
pd2.hDC = NULL;
pd2.Flags = PD_RETURNDC | PD_COLLATE;
pd2.Flags2 = 0;
pd2.ExclusionFlags = 0;
pd2.nPageRanges = 0;
pd2.nMaxPageRanges = 10;
pd2.lpPageRanges = NULL;
pd2.nMinPage = 1;
pd2.nMaxPage = 1000;
pd2.nCopies = 1;
pd2.hInstance = 0;
pd2.lpPrintTemplateName = NULL;
pd2.lpCallback = NULL;
pd2.nPropertyPages = 0;
pd2.lphPropertyPages = NULL;
pd2.nStartPage = START_PAGE_GENERAL;
pd2.dwResultAction = 0;
pdrc = PrintDlgEx  (&pd2);

Answer 1

You are most likely getting a return code of E_INVALIDARG, due to failure to read the fine print on the PRINTDLGEX structure. Specifically, it says "If the PD_NOPAGENUMS flag is not specified, lpPageRanges must be non-NULL."

The underlying problem with PrintDlg / PrintDlgEx is due to a missing attribute on your WinMain. You need to tag WinMain as [STAThreadAttribute] to indicate that your COM threading model is single-threaded apartment. Other threading models MAY work, but I can't say for sure.