The Perl/Tk functions getOpenFile() and getSaveFile() (dialog boxes to select a file to open or save) do not work under Windows 7. It was tested e.g. with Windows 7 Enterprise. A perl program terminates immediately and without any warnings/errors when any of the functions getOpenFile() or getSaveFile() is being called.

The both Perl/Tk functions getOpenFile() and getSaveFile() do work well under Windows 2000, XP and Vista. Is there any workaround for the old Common File Dialog (CFD) interface of Perl/Tk in order that these dialog functions using the Microsoft CFD library will also run under Windows 7 ?

I have read somewhere on a Microsoft Support site:
>> It is very important to note that the APIs for using the legacy CFD have not changed since
>> Windows Vista, and XP to support application compatibility under Win7.
This is not apparently right! The problem looks like a new bug or compatibility problem of the CFD API in Windows 7.

Here is an ActivePerl snippet that worked fine in all older Windows versions (2000, XP, Vista e.g.):

#!./perl -w

use Tk;

my $file1;
my $types = [
['My Files', '.dat'],
['All Files', '*' ],
];
my $mw = new MainWindow;

### The methods getOpenFile and getSaveFile pop up a dialog box for the user to select a file to open or save.
### If the user selects a file, both getOpenFile and getSaveFile return the full pathname of this file.
### If the user cancels the operation, both commands return an undefined value.

$file1 = $mw->getOpenFile(-title => "Select a file to READ", -defaultextension => '.dat', -filetypes=>$types );
print "File selected by getOpenFile(): $file1 \n";

$file1 = $mw->getSaveFile(-title => "Select a file to WRITE", -defaultextension => '.dat');
print "File selected by getSaveFile(): $file1 \n";

Tk::MainLoop();