Knowledge Base

You cannot open a resource file in the resource editor and you may receive a "This file is already open in an editor" error message in Visual C++

Article ID: 168405

Article Last Modified on 8/11/2005

Microsoft Visual C++ 5.0 Enterprise Edition
Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 Enterprise Edition
Microsoft Visual C++ 5.0 Professional Edition
Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 Professional Edition
Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 Standard Edition
Microsoft Visual Studio 97 Service Pack 3
Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0 Enterprise Edition

This article was previously published under Q168405

SYMPTOMS

The ResourceView may become confused and fail to open a resource file even though the file is already open in the resource editor. Visual Studio may generate an error dialog saying "This file is already open in an editor" and the string "Load Failed" will appear below the bug project's resources. The MORE INFORMATION section below documents how this might occur.

CAUSE

The .rc file is already open in an editor.

RESOLUTION

Close the .rc file already open in the development environment then reopen the resource file for the project.

STATUS

This behavior is by design.

MORE INFORMATION

Steps to reproduce the behavior

Create a new MFC AppWizard (exe) project named "Test". Use the default settings by pressing the Finish button on the first step of the AppWizard.
On the File menu, click Open.
Type Test.rc in the File Name box.
In the Open As list, select Text, and then click OK.
On the Workspace pane, click the ResourceView tab.
Expand Test Resources to see the Test project's resources. The error message appears.
Close Test.rc in the text editor and repeat step 6.

Additional query words: RC ResEdit dlgedit

Keywords: kberrmsg kbtshoot kbide kbprb KB168405