Works perfectly now. Thanks for your help guys!!!

Finally, Dirk, if you don't want to use shared_ptr<void> (and casts) everywhere you can include boost/type_traits.hpp and use remove_pointer:

typedef shared_ptr<remove_pointer<HDC>::type> dc_handle; typedef shared_ptr<remove_pointer<HWND>::type> wnd_handle;

I take that as a christmas present :-) The compiler just started to complain about void* is not HDC and I was just starting to add the needed casts. This is really cool! Thanks a lot - you saved me from writing a lot of extra code... I wish you both all the best for the new year!! -Dirk