Find Source: Please Enter the Path for MFC

When debugging an application written using the Microsoft Foundation Class (MFC) Libraries, the Visual Workbench's integrated debugger is often used to trace into class library source code. If the debugger can not find the source files for the MFC Libraries, it displays a "Find Source" dialog box requesting the path for the MFC source file. After entering the path for the MFC source file, the debugger works fine.

When Visual C++ is installed, the Setup program determines the correct directory paths for several file types and updates the "Options|Directories..." dialog box with these paths in the Visual Workbench. One of the file types is for the Microsoft Foundation Class Library source files. Its path is set to C:\MSVC\MFC by the Setup program if the user selects the "Typical Installation" without changing the default directory. The path could be changed through the "Directories" dialog box in the Visual Workbench under the "Options" menu item. Typically this needs to be done if a user copies the MFC source code to a different directory other than the default directory.

To change the path for the MFC source code in the "Directories" dialog box, follow the steps below:

1. Open the Visual Workbench.
2. Select "Options" on the menu bar.
3. Select "Directories...".
4. In the "MFC Files Path:" edit box, specify the base directory where the Microsoft Foundation Class Library source code is located. For example, if the MFC library source code is located in directory

                     C:\VC150\mfc\src
   						

   then specify the following in the "MFC Files Path:" edit box:

                     C:\VC150\mfc
   						

   The relative path \src is embeded in the MFC libraries and will be appended to the end of the path speicifed in the "MFC Files Path:" edit box when the MFC source code is needed for debugging.
5. Click OK button to save the changes.

Incorrectly specifying the path for the MFC source code could trigger the "Find Source" dialog box to be displayed each time the debugger could not find the source code for the MFC libraries.

NOTE: For Visual C++ 2.x you cannot change the "MFC Files Path" as described in this article. When debugging you will be presented with a dialog box requesting the location of the MFC files. This information is stored in the .VCP file for the project. It will not be requested again until you open a new project that does not have this information stored.