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Troubleshooting

Build-time failures​

fatal error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'atlbase.h'​

The VS2022 Build Tools are installed without the C++ ATL component. Open the Visual Studio Installer → Modify → Individual components → check "C++ ATL for latest v143 build tools (x86 & x64)" → rebuild.

This project only builds on Windows with MSVC. / This project requires the MSVC compiler.​

CMake configure-time guards. Use the supported toolchain: Windows + VS2022 + generator "Visual Studio 17 2022" with -A Win32. Clang, gcc, and non-Windows hosts are unsupported by design.

These are expected to be absent on the Windows 10 SDK — the project ships compatibility shims instead (src/MovieMakerCore/HMREngine/d3dx11compat.h, dxva2stubs.cpp) and must not link the removed import libraries. If you see these errors, a module's CMakeLists.txt was modified to link them — revert. See SDK Compatibility.

CMake configures but nothing builds / wrong architecture​

Use -A Win32 (x86). A Win64 build produces binaries whose export decorations and contract-suite behavior do not match the reference set.

Test-time failures​

Contract suite reports E_NOTIMPL from factories​

You ran the suite against build_clean\bin\Debug (the default) — the reference/parity-stub binaries. Set the environment variable first:

$env:WMMR_DLL_DIR = "$PWD\build\bin\Debug"
python32\python.exe tests\mmr-python\run_tests.py

OSError: [WinError 193] %1 is not a valid Win32 application when loading DLLs​

You are running 64-bit Python. The DLLs are 32-bit; only the gitignored embedded 32-bit CPython (python32\python.exe) can load them.

Contract suite cannot find DLLs​

WMMR_DLL_DIR must point at the directory containing the DLLs (build\bin\Debug), not at the repo root, and the build must have produced output there.

GUI harness fails to start​

mmr-gui needs .NET 10 with the x86 runtime and PlatformTarget=x86. Set $env:DOTNET_ROOT_X86 to the x86 runtime location. The --selfcheck mode runs managed-only and needs no DLLs — use it to isolate toolchain issues from DLL issues.

Runtime issues​

MovieMaker.exe exits immediately​

Check, in order:

  1. Is MovieMakerCore.dll next to MovieMaker.exe (build\bin\Debug)? The launcher LoadLibrarys it from its own directory.
  2. Is something else holding a single-instance mutex? Startup creates two: Global\WindowsLiveMovieMaker_Sundance_SingleInstance (in MovieMakerMain) and Global\WindowsLiveMovieMaker_SundanceApp (in SundanceAppMain initialization). (Any program creating either name blocks launch — preserved original behavior, Quirk #2.)
  3. A silently swallowed exception during bootstrap is original behavior (the VEH + SEH double layer, Quirk #1) — attach a debugger and break on 0xe06d7363 to see what is really failing.

Video preview is blank / renders in software​

The engine falls back to WARP when no usable hardware D3D11 device exists, and the original defaulted to a single-threaded device flag (Quirk #9, Quirk #20). Check d3d11 availability and the DX log output.

The app tries to write %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\WL\MovieMaker\auth.dat​

That is the DPAPI-encrypted PSA authentication store — expected, and safe: a single CryptProtectData blob, current-user scope, magic/version-gated, size-bounded. See Security.

Documentation site issues​

Building these docs​

cd website
npm install
npm run build      # static site → website/build
npm run serve      # local preview of the production build
npm start          # hot-reloading dev server

Requires Node.js ≥ 18. See website/README.md.