Include headfiles in VC

[Cristofor]

Hi, I am using Visual studio 2008 express edition now. It does not have stdafx.h. so I download stdafx.h and three other head files: AFXWIN.h, AFXEXT.h and AFXCMN.h from google. I put these four headfiles into C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\include. And then I wrote a small program just to test if it is working.
-------------------------------------------------code start

#include <iostream>
#include <stdafx.h>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
    cout << "GHHH"<< endl;
}

---------------------------------------------------code ends

I got these compile information:

-------------------------------------------------compile message
1>------ Build started: Project: Hello, Configuration: Debug Win32 ------
1>Compiling...
1>Hello.cpp
1>c:\program files\microsoft visual studio 9.0\vc\include\afxwin.h(19) : fatal error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'afx.h': No such file or directory
1>Build log was saved at "file://c:\Users\leo\Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Projects\Hello\Hello\Debug\BuildLog.htm"
1>Hello - 1 error(s), 0 warning(s)
========== Build: 0 succeeded, 1 failed, 0 up-to-date, 0 skipped ==========
---------------------------------------------------compile msg ends

Could anyone tell me why and how to solve the problem. Thanks a lot!

[Fbody]

"stdafx.h" is a header that VC++ automatically creates for every program created using one of the templates/wizards. You can safely leave it out of your program completely. It has nothing of any value in it unless you add to it.

[Cristofor]

Thank you Fbody. How about I change it to another headfile instead of stdafx.h? Is this method to add headfiles right?

[WaltP]

What would you like to change it to? What would be the purpose of it?

You only specify a header because you need to functions it references. You don't add headers because you like adding headers.

[Cristofor]

For example, If I want to use windows.h and Visual studio 2008 does not have this headfile. So what I do is to download it from google and then paste it to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\include. However, I know this does not work.
I want to ask how to add headfiles into VC in a easy way.

[Fbody]

To use a header, you have to include it in your code. Like you did in your OP...

//I want to use the windows.h header

#include "windows.h"

//this makes the functions and classes available in windows.h
//available in your program

int main()
{
}

Or am I misunderstanding your question?

[Dave Sinkula]

For example, If I want to use windows.h and Visual studio 2008 does not have this headfile. So what I do is to download it from google and then paste it to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\include. However, I know this does not work.
I want to ask how to add headfiles into VC in a easy way.

You can't just "download a header" and expect it to work if the associated libraries are not installed as well.