Can't change Windows SDK version in Visual Studio C++ project - c++

I have a Visual Studio C++ console application that I created with Visual Studio 2015 and now I can't compile it (with Visual Studio 2017) because it is targeting the Windows 8.1 SDK, which is not installed. The problem is that I can't retarget the project to the Windows 10 SDK.
What happens is that when I open the project properties page and go to General - Target Platform I see the Windows 10 SDK in the dropdown, and I am able to select it... but as soon as I press Apply, it reverts back to 8.1 by itself. No error message is provided.
Visual Studio installer says that, indeed, the listed SDK version is installed:
So what's going on here? Is there a way to retarget my project without having to install the Windows 8.1 SDK?
Not sure if that matters but: this project is actually just a "wrapper" around an existing bare project consisting of just a bunch of .cpp and .h files, which was developed by another person. I'm really not familiar with C++ development.

After hours of struggling with this problem, I coincidentally discovered that selecting Project Properties/General, changing "Platform Toolset" to v141_xp (instead of v141) forcibly drops the Windows SDK Version to 8.1 or 7.0. I'm not sure how Visual Studio chooses which SDK to use.
EDIT: You must edit .vcxproj and change both:
<TargetPlatformVersion>10.0.17134.0</TargetPlatformVersion>
<WindowsTargetPlatformVersion>10.0.17134.0</WindowsTargetPlatformVersion>

Related

Why do I get "Illegal Instruction" error when Building on windows10 and running on Windows7

I have a c++ program built using VS2017 on windows7.
When I run it on Windows7 or windows10 there is no problem.
If I Build the same program on Windows10 (still using VS2017) the program runs OK on Windows10 but when I try to run it on Windows7 I get an "0xC000001D: Illegal Instruction." error.
Is it even possible to run programs built in Windows10 on Windows7 ? and if so what can I do?
Thanks
The default SDKs will be different on your two VS2017 installations. Right-click the project, select "properties", then the "General" page. See Windows SDK Version.
You can install different SDK versions (and different Platform Toolsets) using the Visual Studio installer ("Modify").
You would probably need to install the v140 toolset.
Also see the response here:
https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/vstudio/en-US/e19634d8-f635-4ed0-b8d7-45b64ccbd6fa/windows-sdk-7-in-visual-studio-2017?forum=visualstudiogeneral
...which states:
You can create a project with the default project template. After that, right click the project name under Solution Explorer and go to Configuration Properties-General, modify the 'Platform Toolset' to Windows7.1SDK, since you already installed the Windows SDK 7. Please have a look at the following note:
##To change the target platform toolset, you must have the associated version of Visual Studio or the Windows Platform SDK installed. For example, to target the Itanium platform with the Windows7.1SDK platform toolset, you must have Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 4 SP1 installed
If the above not works, you can also modify the platform toolset to Visual Studio 2010 (v100), which has the same compiler like Windows SDK 7, if you have the VS 2010 and VS 2017 on the same computer

Qt VS Tools: error reading VS project settings

I develop an application using Visual Studio 2015 + Qt VS Tools extension. For me it's first time I used Qt (version 5.14.1) in my project. Everything was working fine until something wrong happened.
I was asked to make release version of my application, it worked fine on Windows 10 and Windows 7 64-bit systems. Then I set the project configuration back to Debug x64 to continue my work. First strange thing I noticed - when I double-clicked on *.ui form files in my Solution Explorer, Visual Studio crashed and reloaded without any error, Qt Designer doesn't launch.
What I tried:
First I tried to open Qt Designer externally (from bin folder in Qt directory) and open my form - it worked.
I tried another project made in VS 2015 + Qt VS Tools Extension - same problem.
I tried to remove my Qt Version and re-add it. And here it comes: Error screenshot. It also occurs without using system enviroment variable $(QTDIR).
I reinstalled Qt to my PC (installed version 5.14.2 instead of 5.14.1), same error.
I reinstalled Visual Studio 2015, same error.
I tried to reset my Visual Studio settings and parameters to default, no results.
I installed Visual Studio 2019. The problem is still present.
UPD:
I cleared Visual Studio cache according to these instructions. It didn't work for me.
I removed every Visual C++ Redistributables from my PC and installed the latest version from Microsoft site. It also didn't work.
The error occurs even if no project is opened, so the problem is caused either by Visual Studio 2015, by Qt 5.14, or by Qt VS Tools extension.
P.S. Sorry if my english wasn't perfect. Waiting for any ideas on fixing this problem.
For any future readers who have this problem, start your maintenance tool or Qt installer, e.g. C:\Qt\MaintenanceTool.exe, "Add or remove components", and then make sure Qt/<version>/MSVC is installed, as shown in the image below:
.
Then you'll be able to select that Qt version instead of MinGW, since the Visual Studio extension only supports the MSVC compiler and not MinGW.
Encountered the exact same problem and the only solution I have found was reverting to an older version of the Qt Visual Studio Tools extension.
Visual Studio has been painfully persistent about updating the version even once I installed an older one, so make sure to disable automatic extension updates (Extensions → Manage Extensions → Extension Settings → Uncheck Automatically search for updates/Automatically update extensions).
Hope it helps.
To solve your problem, you need to remove the QTDIR and QMAKESPEC environment variables that remain in Windows after installing older versions of Qt.
Well, after some more procedures that didn't help, I just did clean-reinstallation for my Windows 10. Fortunately, that helped :)

How to install SDK for Visual Studio

I can download the iso with the SDK but which of the many *.msi do I need for C++ projects with MFC? There seemingly is no general installer included which installs the SDK on the fly.
When I installed Visual Studio 2019 I opted for C++ and MFC development and I thought that the installation of the SDK is then automatic - but somehow it was not. I de-installed and re-installed Visual Studio and then made sure that the SDK-box was checked.
Problem solved. Thanks.

Enabling MSVC10 Platform toolset in VS2012 64bit project [duplicate]

Is there a simple way to compile a 64 bit app with the 32-bit edition of Visual C++ 2010 Express? What configurations, if any, are necessary?
Here are step by step instructions:
Download and install the Windows Software Development Kit version 7.1. Visual C++ 2010 Express does not include a 64 bit compiler, but the SDK does. A link to the SDK: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/bb980924.aspx
Change your project configuration. Go to Properties of your project. On the top of the dialog box there will be a "Configuration" drop-down menu. Make sure that selects "All Configurations." There will also be a "Platform" drop-down that will read "Win32." Finally on the right there is a "Configuration Manager" button - press it. In the dialog that comes up, find your project, hit the Platform drop-down, select New, then select x64. Now change the "Active solution platform" drop-down menu to "x64." When you return to the Properties dialog box, the "Platform" drop-down should now read "x64."
Finally, change your toolset. In the Properties menu of your project, under Configuration Properties | General, change Platform Toolset from "v100" to "Windows7.1SDK".
These steps have worked for me, anyway. Some more details on step 2 can be found in a reference from Microsoft that a previous poster mentioned: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/9yb4317s.aspx.
64-bit tools are not available on
Visual C++ Express by default. To
enable 64-bit tools on Visual C++
Express, install the Windows Software
Development Kit (SDK) in addition to
Visual C++ Express. Otherwise, an
error occurs when you attempt to
configure a project to target a 64-bit
platform using Visual C++ Express.
How to: Configure Visual C++ Projects to Target 64-Bit Platforms
Ref:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/9yb4317s.aspx
And make sure you download the Windows7.1 SDK, not just the Windows 7 one. That caused me a lot of head pounding.
I found an important step to add to this - after you've installed the SDK, go to your project properties and change Configuration Properties->General->Platform Toolset from v100 or whatever it is to Windows7.1SDK. This changes $(WindowsSdkDir) to the proper place and seemed to solve some other difficulties I was encountering as well.
Note that Visual C++ compilers are removed when you upgrade Visual Studio 2010 Professional or Visual Studio 2010 Express to Visual Studio 2010 SP1 if Windows SDK v7.1 is installed.
For instructions on resolving this, see KB2519277 on the Microsoft Support site.
Download the Windows SDK and then go to View->Properties->Configuration Manager->Active Solution Platform->New->x64.
Programming in a 64-bit environment is quite different than 32-bit environment.
Code generated has totally different assembly constitution in 32 & 64-bit code, even the protocols of communicating with functions change. So you can't generate 64-bit code using 32-bit compiler.
You might want to see an article on Microsoft's web site about targeting a 64-bit target but using a 32-bit development machine.
As what Jakob said: windows sdk 7.1 cannot be installed if MS VC++ x64 and x86 runtimes and redisrtibutables of version 10.0.40219 are present. after removing them win sdk install is okay, VS C++ SP1 can be installed fine again.
Kind regards

How to compile a 64-bit application using Visual C++ 2010 Express?

Is there a simple way to compile a 64 bit app with the 32-bit edition of Visual C++ 2010 Express? What configurations, if any, are necessary?
Here are step by step instructions:
Download and install the Windows Software Development Kit version 7.1. Visual C++ 2010 Express does not include a 64 bit compiler, but the SDK does. A link to the SDK: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/bb980924.aspx
Change your project configuration. Go to Properties of your project. On the top of the dialog box there will be a "Configuration" drop-down menu. Make sure that selects "All Configurations." There will also be a "Platform" drop-down that will read "Win32." Finally on the right there is a "Configuration Manager" button - press it. In the dialog that comes up, find your project, hit the Platform drop-down, select New, then select x64. Now change the "Active solution platform" drop-down menu to "x64." When you return to the Properties dialog box, the "Platform" drop-down should now read "x64."
Finally, change your toolset. In the Properties menu of your project, under Configuration Properties | General, change Platform Toolset from "v100" to "Windows7.1SDK".
These steps have worked for me, anyway. Some more details on step 2 can be found in a reference from Microsoft that a previous poster mentioned: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/9yb4317s.aspx.
64-bit tools are not available on
Visual C++ Express by default. To
enable 64-bit tools on Visual C++
Express, install the Windows Software
Development Kit (SDK) in addition to
Visual C++ Express. Otherwise, an
error occurs when you attempt to
configure a project to target a 64-bit
platform using Visual C++ Express.
How to: Configure Visual C++ Projects to Target 64-Bit Platforms
Ref:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/9yb4317s.aspx
And make sure you download the Windows7.1 SDK, not just the Windows 7 one. That caused me a lot of head pounding.
I found an important step to add to this - after you've installed the SDK, go to your project properties and change Configuration Properties->General->Platform Toolset from v100 or whatever it is to Windows7.1SDK. This changes $(WindowsSdkDir) to the proper place and seemed to solve some other difficulties I was encountering as well.
Note that Visual C++ compilers are removed when you upgrade Visual Studio 2010 Professional or Visual Studio 2010 Express to Visual Studio 2010 SP1 if Windows SDK v7.1 is installed.
For instructions on resolving this, see KB2519277 on the Microsoft Support site.
Download the Windows SDK and then go to View->Properties->Configuration Manager->Active Solution Platform->New->x64.
Programming in a 64-bit environment is quite different than 32-bit environment.
Code generated has totally different assembly constitution in 32 & 64-bit code, even the protocols of communicating with functions change. So you can't generate 64-bit code using 32-bit compiler.
You might want to see an article on Microsoft's web site about targeting a 64-bit target but using a 32-bit development machine.
As what Jakob said: windows sdk 7.1 cannot be installed if MS VC++ x64 and x86 runtimes and redisrtibutables of version 10.0.40219 are present. after removing them win sdk install is okay, VS C++ SP1 can be installed fine again.
Kind regards