I did what you suggest : the return value of SafeArrayGetElement is S_OK v1.vt = 0x95d4 I have seen a VB example using this GetAllProperties method, and there they simply access it with names(i), and treat it as a string ( it stands for a Property Name ) How can I translate this into C++ ?

Resolved -------- I changed the order of the numerous #include lines : I put the #include "windows.h" as the first, and now it works.