I have a c++ project that compiles well under Visual Studio 2013.
Today I installed Visual Studio 2017 Professional Edition, then there's a new setting in project settings > General called "Windows SDK Version", by default is 10.0.16299.0. Since I'm compiling windows desktop programs for targeting Windows 7 systems, I changed it to 8.1, is this correct?
Generally speaking, a Windows SDK supports its "main" version and also the previous ones, but you need to specify what Windows version your program will need. In fact, you're better off doing so or else you can inadvertently use features not available in the version you want to support.
Given an SDK, you indicate which older Windows version to target by defining the WINVER and _WIN32_WINNT macros somewhere in your project files or in the C/C++ Preprocessor project settings in Visual Studio.
For example, the following definitions target Windows 7:
#define WINVER 0x0601
#define _WIN32_WINNT 0x0601
For more information, see Using the Windows Headers and Modifying WINVER and _WIN32_WINNT
Indeed I raised this issue because my freshly installed Visual Studio could not build the VM because SDK 16299 is now indeed the default. It's mentioned here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Windows_SDK.
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Also MS does not make finding older SDK's very easy. You have to click through to another page all the way on the end of this page:
https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/downloads/windows-10-sdk
Even though I googled on "Microsoft Windows SDK 15063".
.
So all-in-all it's now a small chore for newbies to get up and running on the VM. To start, I think it should be made as easy as possible. (Complexity will come soon after that :)).
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PS I'm not sure about Windows 7 compatibility. But the current VM SDK is also listed as being for Windows 10.
Related
I would like to use Visual Studio 2019 to enjoy the latest C++ additions, but targeting Windows 7.
I created a Windows C++ application using the VS 2019 wizard (running on Windows 10).
A targetver.h file is created by the wizard, with the following content:
#pragma once
// // Including SDKDDKVer.h defines the highest available Windows platform.
// If you wish to build your application for a previous Windows platform, include WinSDKVer.h and
// set the _WIN32_WINNT macro to the platform you wish to support before including SDKDDKVer.h.
#include <SDKDDKVer.h>
I followed the instructions in the comment lines, and added the following lines intargetver.h (before the #include <SDKDDKVer.h> line):
// Target Windows 7 SP1
#include <WinSDKVer.h>
#define _WIN32_WINNT 0x0601
To test that, in the program's main function I invoked an API (PathCchAppend) that is not supported in Windows 7.
The program builds fine (I statically link the CRT), and runs fine in Windows 10.
The same program fails when executed in Windows 7, showing the following error message:
Now, the program should have not compiled at all, because I specified the Windows 7 target, and the aforementioned API is not available on Windows 7.
Is this a bug in the Windows SDK?
Is it possible to target Windows 7 using VS 2019 and the Windows 10 SDK, getting errors during the build process when an API or structure that is not supported in Windows 7 is used in the code, and how?
VS 2019's toolset and the latest Windows 10 SDK support targeting Windows 7 Service Pack 1.
You have already configured the Windows headers in the Windows 10 SDK properly:
#include <winsdkver.h>
#define _WIN32_WINNT 0x0601
#include <sdkddkver.h>
You can still call APIs that are not supported by Windows 7 in this mode, which is why calling PathCchAppend builds, links, and fails at runtime.
The problem you are seeing may also be related to the Universal C/C++ Runtime not being on your target machine. Install the x86 and/or x64 native version on your target test machine.
See Microsoft Docs.
I am using Visual Studio Community 2015 and I wrote some simple Win32 demo application which should download file from internet and execute two HTTP GET requests.
I am using functions like InternetOpenA, InternetConnectA, HttpOpenRequestA, URLDownloadToFile, etc.
Only thing that I have changed in settings is Platform Toolset to Visual Studio 2013 (v120) and my targetver.h file looks like this:
#pragma once
// Including SDKDDKVer.h defines the highest available Windows platform.
// If you wish to build your application for a previous Windows platform, include WinSDKVer.h and
// set the _WIN32_WINNT macro to the platform you wish to support before including SDKDDKVer.h.
#include <WinSDKVer.h>
#define WINVER 0x0600
#define _WIN32_WINNT 0x0600
#include <SDKDDKVer.h>
However, it runs on my Windows 10 computer, but it does not run on windows 7. It says: Missing MSVCR120.dll file. I can install appropriate C++ Redistributables but that is not solution that I need.
Is there any other options I need to include when I compile so I can avoid this error?
To avoid your application needing a separate runtime DLL, in the project settings, look under:
C/C++ > Code Generation > Runtime Library
and choose multi-threaded, rather than multi-threaded DLL.
You do not need to change the platform toolset.
In my project, that I compile with VS 2017 and want to run all the way down to Vista, I do the same as you, but without the first #include <WinSDKVer.h>. I just set the _WIN32_WINNT macro to 0x0600 and so far it's working fine.
I target the Windows 8.1 SDK, and use MFC, if that helps.
I've used dependency walker in the past to diagnose dll dependencies. Hopefully it's something silly like the 32-bit or 64-bit runtimes being missing.
As keith recommended in his answer, you can also try static linking the vc runtime (/MT[d] under C++/Code generation/Runtime Library) so that it doesn't need to load the runtime as a dll. Note that this is not the recommended option, since the VC runtime cannot be patched by Windows Update if it's burned into your executible.
How can I change the target platform to Windows 7? All I can chose is Windows 8.1 and therefore my project does not run on Windows 7. The same project I used to compile on my old Windows 7 PC with Visual Studio 2013. And of course it worked there.
I already tried to install Windows 7 SDK but sadly this does not work since it requites Net Framework 4.0 which I can not install anymore. (Windows 10 includes 4.6?) - https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/en-en/library/ff770576.aspx
Thanks.
From MSDN:
Target Platform Version
[...]
To target Windows 7 or Windows Vista, use the value 8.1, since Windows SDK 8.1 is backward compatible to those platforms. In addition, you should define the appropriate value for _WIN32_WINNT in targetver.h. For Windows 7, that's 0x0601. See Modifying WINVER and _WIN32_WINNT.
To get additional target platforms (i.e. older Visual C compilers), install the respective older Visual Studio version(s) in parallel.
For instance, if you want to use Visual Studio 2017 in the GUI and want to build against VC2008 (msvc90), install Visual Studio 2008 in parallel to Visual Studio 2017. In VS2017, in the build settings, you can then select the "VC 2008" build target.
Also see:
https://poweruser.blog/visual-studio-2017-compile-against-older-visual-c-c-runtimes-372519fe1400
I use visual studio 2010 running on Windows 8.1
the program is in C++ and uses MFC library
when I compile it in my computer running windows 8, and then I run it on the destination computer running windows 7, the program stops unexpectedly.
how to compile it specifically for windows 7
Without using a newer SDK there is no special switch to set to compile a program for Windows 7.
Read aboutthe SDK versions and settings for the header files in the [MSDN][1]
Even if you use a newer SDK and it is a standard MFC program, than you shouldn't have a problem using it under Windows 7. In 99% of all cases using a newer SDK (with incompatible compiler settings) and run the program on an incompatible (older) OS, the program will not start. In such cases some DLL entry points of new function can't be found.
If you program stops unexectable you should use remote debugging to find the bug. Or use minidumps to do a post mortem analysis. I am sure you have a bug in your program. And that it runs on Windows 8 may be simply luck.
Check if the values of WINVER and/or _WIN32_WINNT in your project have been #defined as 0x0602 or higher -- see this MSDN article for a list of possible values
It might be an issue of the runtime libraries not being present on the Windows 7 machine. This can prevent the program from starting with a non-intuitive error message.
In that case, you can install the Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package on the Windows 7 machine and see if that helps. Alternatively you can deploy the application with the runtime library DLL files in the same directory as the .exe.
I have a dll project project in my solution, in which target OS version is not defined.
even have the following warning:
_WIN32_WINNT not defined. Defaulting to _WIN32_WINNT_MAXVER (see WinSDKVer.h)
this might be the problem. After testing it I will confirm the answer
Ok, so I'm using Visual Studio 2012 in Windows 7 x64 for programming and compiling. My application works fine there, but when I try to execute it from a Windows XP SP3 Virtual Machine, I get "xxxx.exe is not a valid win32 application" right away.
The application is being compiled with static linking, that is, with /MT. I have set _WIN32_WINNT to 0x0501 in targetver.exe; the configuration manager is set to Win32 and the target machine in the Linker advanced options is set to MACHINEX86.
My targetver.h looks like this:
#include <winsdkver.h>
#define _WIN32_WINNT 0x0501
#define WINVER 0x0501
#define NTDDI_VERSION 0x0501
#include <SDKDDKVer.h>
I also tried compiling with /MD and installing .NET Framework, but that didn't help either.
I'm clueless, and I could really use some help as I need to have it working for Windows XP.
VC++ 2012 RTM did not support Windows XP – that support came later in 2012 in Visual Studio 2012 Update 1.
The CTP of Windows XP targeting with VC++ 2012 could be installed, but you would have to link the CRT statically in order to deploy. See this blog article for more information.
Visual Studio 2012 Update 1 added official support for running applications built with VC++ 2012 on Windows XP as well as the ability to link the CRT dynamically.
Download link
Blog article containing additional information
Two things should be done:
Configuration Properties → General page, change Platform Toolset to: Visual Studio 2012 - Windows XP (v110_xp);
Menu Linker → System. Change Subsystem to: Console/Windows.
A detailed explanation is here: http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/linking-applications-using-visual-studio-2012-to-run-on-windows-xp
When you generate the EXE file, the version for 32-bit will be in the project folder bin\x86\Release.