Created On:  08 November 2012

Problem:

A customer is converting from Net Express to Visual COBOL native and they have a manifest file that they would like to include in their .EXE.
 
In Net Express they use an RC file included in the project that includes their own "app.exe.manifest" file.
This is needed to enable common controls V6 that they need for their UI.
Here is the contents of the manifest which works successfully with Net Express builds:
 


 
This manifest isn't working with Visual COBOL.
 
From looking at the verbose build output it can be seen that the link command is being called with the -manifest option.
This causes an app.exe.manifest to be generated.
Then further down there is an mt (Manifest Tool) command to insert the generated manifest file into the app.exe file.
This is likely overriding the manifest they compiled in using the .rc file.
 
How can they override this process to include their own manifest file into the executable?
The end result that they are looking for is the enabling of common controls version 6.
 

Resolution:

You can get your own manifest file to override the default one by placing the name of the manifest file in the additional directives field under COBOL Link tab of the project Properties page.

Incident #2600058