MQCreateQueue

I am having trouble creating a message queue using MSMQ. I have little experience with C++ API. The following code compiles, but throws a "Failed to initialize error at runtime."

Code:

---

HRESULT MsgQueueCreate()
{
        //Define the number of properties for each Msg Queue
        const int NUMBER_OF_PROPERTIES = 3;

        //First we have to define the MQQUEUEPROPS structure
        MQQUEUEPROPS                mq_props;
        //and its properties
        MQPROPVARIANT        mq_prop_variant[NUMBER_OF_PROPERTIES];
        QUEUEPROPID                mq_prop_id[NUMBER_OF_PROPERTIES];
        HRESULT                        mq_prop_hr[NUMBER_OF_PROPERTIES];
        HRESULT result = MQ_OK;
        DWORD prop_id = 0;

        //Define a format name buffer and a buffer length
        WCHAR formatBuffer[256];
        DWORD formatBufferLength = sizeof(formatBuffer)/sizeof(formatBuffer[0]);

        PSECURITY_DESCRIPTOR securityDescriptor;


        //Next step is to fill in the values for the structure
        mq_prop_id[prop_id] = PROPID_Q_PATHNAME;
        mq_prop_variant[prop_id].vt = VT_NULL;
        mq_prop_variant[prop_id].pwszVal = L".\\PRIVATE$\\MyPrivateQueue";

        //increment the prop_id each time properties are added to the structure
        prop_id++;

        LPWSTR mq_label = L"Msg Queue";
        mq_prop_id[prop_id] = PROPID_Q_LABEL;
        mq_prop_variant[prop_id].vt = VT_LPWSTR;
        mq_prop_variant[prop_id].pszVal = (char*)mq_label;

       
        //increment the prop_id for the property count
        prop_id++;

        //initialize the MQQUEUEPROPS struct with the declared values
        mq_props.cProp = prop_id;
        mq_props.aPropID = mq_prop_id;
        mq_props.aPropVar = mq_prop_variant;
        mq_props.aStatus = mq_prop_hr;
        securityDescriptor = NULL;

        result = MQCreateQueue(securityDescriptor, &mq_props, formatBuffer, &formatBufferLength);
       
        return result;
}

---