FYI: GDI+ Crash in IDE

GDI+ is an excellent tool for custom drawing and allowing VB to use PNGs, TIFFs, and other file formats. However, if it is not shut down, you can crash your app. XP-related and possibly Vista?
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Uncompiled usercontrol (uc) problems.<br>
 1. Your uc creates GDI+ token for life of uc<br>
 2. In your uc's Terminate event, you shutdown GDI+<br>
 3. You run your app and hit END because of a Debug error or simply hit the VB toolbar's Stop button<br>
 4. A crash occurs shortly thereafter, maybe 2 minutes later, maybe 10 minutes later & you lost any updated/unsaved code you had.<br> This isn't a problem when uc is compiled because a compiled uc gets a terminate event even if it is added to an uncompiled project.<br>
 5. Why the crash? Because END prevents firing any uncompiled object's Terminate event and therefore, GDI+ isn't shut down because it gets triggered in the terminate event.
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When in IDE:<br>
To prevent GDI+ crashing. You have 2 choices<br>
1. Create token, use GDI+, destroy token immediately<br>
2. Never hit END or use VB's toolbar STOP button. And if you do. Save your project immediately. Close VB and re-open project.<br>
Though a crash is probably imminent, at least you have some time to save your work<br>
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I experienced this recently with my AlphaImage control and troubleshooting led me to post this article.