Thanks - the custom functor works, but I don't understand why using boost::bind or std::bind1 fails: Does anybody know why the compiler complains about this? typedef shared_ptr<void> handle; handle make_dc( HWND hWnd ) { handle spHandle( GetDC( hWnd ), bind( &ReleaseDC, hWnd, _1 ) ); return handle; } The compiler has problems with the return_value. I will attach the compiler output to the end of the mail. It is in german but you should get the idea anyway. c:\Programme\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Visual Studio SDKs\Boost 1.32\include\boost\bind.hpp(62) : error C2039: 'result_type': Ist kein Element von 'operator``global namespace''' c:\Programme\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Visual Studio SDKs\Boost 1.32\include\boost\bind.hpp(62) : error C2146: Syntaxfehler: Fehlendes ';' vor Bezeichner 'type' c:\Programme\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Visual Studio SDKs\Boost 1.32\include\boost\bind.hpp(62) : error C2955: 'boost::_bi::type': für die Verwendung einer Vorlagenklasse ist eine Vorlagen-Argumentliste erforderlich c:\Programme\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Visual Studio SDKs\Boost 1.32\include\boost\bind.hpp(111): Siehe Deklaration von 'boost::_bi::type'