How to replicate. Work through Microsoft’s walk-through to create a traditional Windows Desktop application (C++)
Go to File –> New –> Project
Select Visual C++ –> Windows Desktop –> Windows Desktop Wizard
Give the project a suitable name, for example, “TestOne”
![Visual Studio 2017 Create Desktop Project Wizard](https://www.abort-retry-fail.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Visual_Studio_Create_Desktop_Project.png)
By default the application type is set to “Console Application (.exe)”.
![Windows Desktop Project Application Type](https://www.abort-retry-fail.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Windows_Desktop_Project_Application_Type.png)
If you don’t change the application type to “Windows Application (.exe)” you will get an unresolved external symbol _main LINK2019 error when you build the solution. The linker looking for _mainĀ thinks that the project is building a console application.
To fix this make sure the projects linker properties for the subsystem is set to Windows instead of console. Go to Project –>Properties –> Linker –> System and change the subsystem to Windows.
![Visual Studio Project Properties Linker Subsystem](https://www.abort-retry-fail.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Visual_Studio_Project_Properties_Linker.png)