I've actually had this problem before in a slightly different way (the class "not" being compiled was seperate - not a member class), and I actually solved it in a similar way (a different kind of dummy function). It's a shame I didn't realise what caused it - I could have thought to transfer the solution.

Anyway - quick check of when things are initialised and such reveals the static members are initialised before WinMain. Another test reveals that the new code does indeed give an assert error if you forget to release the singleton (yay!).

Ratings for you, sir.