Hi all, sorry for the newbie question... I have been trying to use the boost libraries with no luck I will briefly as possible list the steps I took, so that you can let me know where I went wrong. (please bear with me) 1) I downloaded the latest version and decompressed it so that i have a "C:\boost_1_31_0 directory". 2) I built Boost.Jam by starting the Visual Studio.Net command prompt, cd'ed to the "C:\boost_1_31_0\tools\build\jam_src" directory and invoked the build.bat .... The build was succesfull. 3) Copied the bjam.exe from the "C:\boost_1_31_0\tools\build\jam_src\bin.ntx86" directory to the Vc7/bin directory. 4)Added the VC71_ROOT environment variable to windows with the "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7" path as the value. 5) Made sure that the PATH environment variable had the Vc7\bin path in it. 6) reset. 7) Started the Visual Studio.Net command prompt, cd'ed to the "C:\boost_1_31_0" directory and invoked bjam "-sTOOLS=vc7.1" install ... the whole process started.. building was succesfull (I believe) and I had a new directory c:\Boost with the \include and \lib sub dirs as mentioned in the "Getting Started" page. 8) Started visual studio.NET, went into the menu "Tools->Options->Projects->VC++ Directories" where I set "C:\boost_1_31_0" in the list of INCLUDE directories. 9) Copied a simple example from the boost website to test the libraries, compiled and VC doesn't find one of the header files.. 10) After many, many attempts I lost it and added the "C:\boost_1_31_0\lib" and "C:\boost_1_31_0\bin" to the other list of directories in the LIBRARY and EXECUTABLE list of directories in VC. After loosing it some more (after more attempts) I added even "C:\boost" in the same places as I had done in the previous steps (just in case). Now I get this fatal error "fatal error LNK1104: cannot open file 'libboost_filesystem-vc71-sgd-1_31.lib' " It doesn't seem to find the .lib but I have checked in the boost directories and that .lib is there!!! Any suggestions.... please... I also feel really bad, 'cause it seems I am the only idiot who hasn't been able to do this :(((( If someone can help me I will gladly return the favor (if I can) Thank you very very much in advance, Chris ------------------------ "Programming is Understanding" - Kristen Nygaard (I just wish I could understand more)