now there is only one error....

1>------ Build started: Project: cfgdump, Configuration: Debug Win32 ------
1>LINK : fatal error LNK1104: cannot open file 'libboost_filesystem-vc100-mt-gd-1_58.lib'
========== Build: 0 succeeded, 1 failed, 0 up-to-date, 0 skipped ==========

when I compiled that, there are hell lot more errors than one can expect. 1>c:\users\shrey\documents\visual studio 2010\projects\cfgdump\cfgdump\test2.cpp(7): error C2059: syntax error : '(' 1>c:\users\shrey\documents\visual studio 2010\projects\cfgdump\cfgdump\test2.cpp(10): error C2065: 'WIN32_FIND_DATA' : undeclared identifier 1>c:\users\shrey\documents\visual studio 2010\projects\cfgdump\cfgdump\test2.cpp(10): error C2146: syntax error : missing ';' before identifier 'data' 1>c:\users\shrey\documents\visual studio 2010\projects\cfgdump\cfgdump\test2.cpp(10): error C2065: 'data' : undeclared identifier 1>c:\users\shrey\documents\visual studio 2010\projects\cfgdump\cfgdump\test2.cpp(11): error C2065: 'HANDLE' : undeclared identifier 1>c:\users\shrey\documents\visual studio 2010\projects\cfgdump\cfgdump\test2.cpp(11): error C2146: syntax error : missing ';' before identifier 'h' 1>c:\users\shrey\documents\visual studio 2010\projects\cfgdump\cfgdump\test2.cpp(11): error C2065: 'h' : undeclared identifier 1>c:\users\shrey\documents\visual studio 2010\projects\cfgdump\cfgdump\test2.cpp(11): error C2065: 'data' : undeclared identifier 1>c:\users\shrey\documents\visual studio 2010\projects\cfgdump\cfgdump\test2.cpp(11): error C3861: 'FindFirstFile': identifier not found 1>c:\users\shrey\documents\visual studio 2010\projects\cfgdump\cfgdump\test2.cpp(13): error C2065: 'h' : undeclared identifier 1>c:\users\shrey\documents\visual studio 2010\projects\cfgdump\cfgdump\test2.cpp(13): error C2065: 'INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE' : undeclared identifier 1>c:\users\shrey\documents\visual studio 2010\projects\cfgdump\cfgdump\test2.cpp(17): error C2065: 'data' : undeclared identifier 1>c:\users\shrey\documents\visual studio 2010\projects\cfgdump\cfgdump\test2.cpp(17): error C2228: left of '.cFileName' must have class/struct/union 1> type is ''unknown-type'' 1>c:\users\shrey\documents\visual studio 2010\projects\cfgdump\cfgdump\test2.cpp(18): error C2065: 'data' : undeclared identifier 1>c:\users\shrey\documents\visual studio 2010\projects\cfgdump\cfgdump\test2.cpp(18): error C2228: left of '.cFileName' must have class/struct/union 1> type is ''unknown-type'' 1>c:\users\shrey\documents\visual studio 2010\projects\cfgdump\cfgdump\test2.cpp(19): error C2065: 'data' : undeclared identifier 1>c:\users\shrey\documents\visual studio 2010\projects\cfgdump\cfgdump\test2.cpp(19): error C2228: left of '.cFileName' must have class/struct/union 1> type is ''unknown-type'' 1>c:\users\shrey\documents\vi

I'm getting more and more confused. From the morning, I'm reading about boost libraries and then something else. I haven't started coding yet. But, I do want to start as soon as possible.

no, I'm don't want to use pre-developed apps. btw, I'm trying to dev the following, but till now no success. small utility - no GUI. cfgdump.exe 1) needs to search drive and find where an exe has been installed (customer can install it in multiple places). 2) goes to directory and confirms existence of some files. 3) runs some commands through a spawned process 4) the commands from item 3 will produce a file. 5) you will need to zip up the contents of the file using https://code.google.com/p/miniz/ library 6) Ask the user for a password 7) encrypt the file using http://www.cryptopp.com/ library File needs to be statically linked and highly portable.

i'm not familiar with findfirst stuff. Can you please elaborate? I was trying to use boost libs.

Can anyone help me in developing a small application? I'm stuck in the module in which I need to search the whole drive for the installation of a .exe file.