SysAnimate32 on Windows 7 and 8 - windows

Question

This code no longer works on Windows 7 or 8.
Aren't SysAnimate32 controls supported on them ?
Is there a way to make it work as it used to work on Windows XP ?
(I am required to write more details but I have no more details to talk about :)
thanks
#include <windows.h>
#include <CommCtrl.h>
HINSTANCE hInstance;
#define IDC_MYANIMATE 9
HWND CreateAnimationControl (HWND hParent)
{
HWND hAnimation = Animate_Create( hParent, IDC_MYANIMATE, ACS_AUTOPLAY | WS_BORDER | WS_CHILD, hInstance);
Animate_Open (hAnimation, "test.avi");
ShowWindow (hAnimation, SW_SHOW);
return hAnimation;
}
LRESULT CALLBACK WindowProcedure (HWND hWnd, UINT uiMsg, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam)
{
static HWND hAnimation = NULL;
switch (uiMsg)
{
case WM_DESTROY:
PostQuitMessage (0);
break;
case WM_CREATE:
hAnimation = CreateAnimationControl (hWnd);
break;
case WM_SHOWWINDOW:
if (wParam)
{
MoveWindow (hAnimation, 0, 0, 300, 300, TRUE);
Animate_Play (hAnimation, 0, -1, -1);
}
break;
}
return DefWindowProc (hWnd, uiMsg, wParam, lParam);
}
int WINAPI WinMain (HINSTANCE hInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance, LPSTR lpsCmdLine, int iCmdShow)
{
WNDCLASSEX WindowClass;
HWND hWnd;
MSG uMsg;
hInstance = GetModuleHandle (NULL);
WindowClass.cbClsExtra = 0;
WindowClass.cbSize = sizeof (WNDCLASSEX);
WindowClass.cbWndExtra = 0;
WindowClass.hbrBackground = CreateSolidBrush (RGB (0, 0, 0));
WindowClass.hCursor = LoadCursor (NULL, IDC_ARROW);
WindowClass.hIcon = LoadIcon (NULL, IDI_APPLICATION);
WindowClass.hIconSm = LoadIcon (NULL, IDI_APPLICATION);
WindowClass.hInstance = hInstance;
WindowClass.lpfnWndProc = WindowProcedure;
WindowClass.lpszClassName = "1";
WindowClass.lpszMenuName = NULL;
WindowClass.style = 0;
if (!RegisterClassEx (&WindowClass))
{
MessageBox (NULL, "Window class registration has failed!", "Error:", MB_OK | MB_ICONERROR);
return 0;
}
hWnd = CreateWindow ("1", "Win32 Animation Testing", WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW,
CW_USEDEFAULT, CW_USEDEFAULT, CW_USEDEFAULT, CW_USEDEFAULT, NULL, NULL,
hInstance, NULL);
if( ! hWnd )
{
MessageBox (NULL, "Window creation has failed!", "Error:", MB_OK | MB_ICONERROR);
return 0;
}
ShowWindow( hWnd, SW_SHOW );
UpdateWindow( hWnd );
while( GetMessage( &uMsg, NULL, 0, 0 ) > 0 )
{
TranslateMessage( &uMsg );
DispatchMessage ( &uMsg );
}
return ( int ) uMsg.wParam;
}

Answer 1

No, that still works just fine when I tried your code on Windows 8, compiled with VS2012. A screenshot to prove it:
Notable is that your error checking is lacking, you don't pay attention to the return value of Animate_Open(). A FALSE return indicates that it could not open the .avi file. Many possible reasons, there's no better diagnostic from that function than "could not do it".
It was difficult to find a .avi file that it could handle, the control is stone-cold old and cannot handle but the simplest ones. In particular an .avi file that also has a audio track will not open, as documented by the MSDN Library. The test one I used was a very simple one I dug out of the Visual Studio image library, Animations/filecopy_16.avi.
So basic checks, after adding the error handling, is to ensure that the file is actually present in the same directory as your EXE and that it is a very simple .avi file that at least plays back in WMP.