Visual Studio 2015 - Compile C++ with older SDK - c++

I have VS 2015 installed on my PC and I want to build a project using the SDK shipped with VS 2010. I installed Microsoft SDK v7.1 but that didn't affect the environment for VS 2015 so that I can choose it as a toolset. Any tips?
This question (Use Visual Studio 2012 and compile with older platform toolset?) almost answers my question but I'm not if the SDK must be installed before VS 2015.

Related

Is it necessary to install Visual Studio C++ Build Tools if Visual Studio 2017 is already installed?

Visual studio 2017 community is installed on my PC along with Visual Studio Build Tools 2017. I am using Windows 10.
Is it still necessary to install Visual C++ Build Tools? Is there a possibility that there will be some packages that cannot be compiled if Visual C++ Build Tools is not available even though Visual Studio Build Tools 2017 is there?

How can I set up Visual Studio 2017 to develop drivers?

According to this forum, https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-hardware-winpc/windows-wdk-on-visual-studio-2017-community/fdbd2b44-e57a-4849-903d-04001205a764
Windows Driver Kit is not currently supported by visual studio 2017.
I tried installing the Windows Driver Kit, but the test driver projects, such as this one, fail to build
https://github.com/Microsoft/Windows-driver-samples/tree/master/serial/VirtualSerial
I get this error when building:
Error MSB8020 The build tools for WindowsUserModeDriver10.0 (Platform Toolset = 'WindowsUserModeDriver10.0') cannot be found. To build using the WindowsUserModeDriver10.0 build tools, please install WindowsUserModeDriver10.0 build tools. Alternatively, you may upgrade to the current Visual Studio tools by selecting the Project menu or right-click the solution, and then selecting "Retarget solution".
I already tried retargeting the Solution to the two options I have: 10.0.17134.0 and 8.1, but the same error keeps coming up.
What do I need to do to build this sample driver? Do I need to install VS2015? VS2017 community edition? Why isn't this WDK supported by the Visual Studio 2017 professional version?
Thanks,
Visual Studio 2017 definitely supports kernel-mode device driver development; there's no doubt about that because I've been using VS17 for it for many, many months.
Use the latest version of Windows Driver Kit (WDK) which can be downloaded and installed from MSDN: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/download-the-wdk
Furthermore, you can always use the Enterprise WDK and then you can simply build using that if you wanted to from command-line. (Also can be found on page linked-to above)
Download the correct WDK installer for your edition of Visual Studio 2017:
WDK for Windows 10, version 1809 for Visual Studio Community 2017
WDK for Windows 10, version 1803 for Visual Studio Professional 2017
WDK for Windows 10, version 1709 for Visual Studio Enterprise 2017
Visit https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/other-wdk-downloads for more information.
Not exactly a solution, but Windows 8.1 WDK works with Visual Studio 2017 Enterprise,
Download it from here, just need to retarget the project to 8.1
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=42273
In addition, I needed to get VS2015 C++ Build Tool to fix a missing Microsoft.cpp.props error
http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/F/7/5F7ACAEB-8363-451F-9425-68A90F98B238/visualcppbuildtools_full.exe
Developing drivers to windows is quite interesting one will be exposed to advanced Operating System Concepts.The set up for the environment will be IDE
IDE - Visual Studio (https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/thank-you-downloading-visual-studio/?sku=Community&rel=16)
Compilers (WDK)
Debugger (WDK)
WDK contains both(https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2085767). Latest Visual Studio(VS2019) will come along with the latest WDK(10, 1903 as of now).
Sometimes plugins might not work properly i.e integration issues between Visual Studio and WDk.
By going to the location "C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Vsix\VS2019" and run VSIX installer.
Now in a new project, driver related templates are available.

Compiling using MSBuild 12.0 from Microsoft Visual Studio 2015

I have a solution that was compiled with MSVC 12.0 Visual Studio 2013 (C++/CLI and C#) but only have Visual Studio 2015 (Community). I want to build the project using MSVC 12.0 as it was intended, as I only need to rebuild 1 part of the solution (of 5) for my purpose and want it to be compatible with the other DLLs. When trying to build it from MSVC 14.0 (Visual Studio 2015) it says:
C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V140\Microsoft.Cpp.Platform.targets(57,5): error MSB8020: The build tools for v120 (Platform Toolset = 'v120') cannot be found.
Of course I installed the MS Build tools for 2013 (MSVC 12.0, v120) from here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40760 as well as the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable 2013 package.
And the right directory for the 12.0 build tools install is C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\12.0\Bin\amd64
It looks like a configuration error on the solution (or in Visual Studio in general) since it is looking for the build tools in the wrong directory. Does anyone know what settings I need to change / add in Visual Studio to get it to compile with MSBuild 12.0 instead of 14.0? I'd prefer not to install Visual Studio 2013 since I don't use it for anything else (just want to have the option to use VS 2013 MSBUILD within VS 2015 as needed).
Okay I have gotten this working although in a roundabout way. Thanks others that have answered and commented. Sign up for a Microsoft Visual Studio Dev Essentials subscription for free. https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/member-offers/vs-dev-essentials/ Then you can go through the menus and download Visual Studio Community 2013 by going to this link and finding it https://my.visualstudio.com/downloads. After doing so, you can build MSVC 12.0 from Visual Studio 2015. Sure, not perfect, but it works. I haven't tried uninstalling Visual Studio 2013 to see if it still works (Windows Phone SDK 8.1 is installed with 2013 as was mentioned to get it working in the Enterprise version of 2015) but if you could somehow keep that and remove the 2013 edition I believe it could work without 2013 installed...
If you go to the top of your .vcxproj change it to this
<Project DefaultTargets="Build" ToolsVersion="12.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
Then your .sln can still open in Visual Studio 2015
VisualStudioVersion = 14.0.25420.1
The reason is because the compiler version is specified on a project-by-project basis, and will override the solution version.
I'd prefer not to install Visual Studio 2013 since I don't use it for anything else (just want to have the option to use VS 2013 MSBUILD within VS 2015 as needed).
You can install VS2013 toolset version from your VS2015 installer without installing visual studio 2013. From the 2015 installer, select Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.0/8.1 Tools and common Tools for Visual C++ 2015:
After installation completed, you will find the platform Toolset below:
Then you can built your project with platform toolset Visual Studio 2013(v120).
You can refer to more info from the similar question on SO.

Targeting Windows XP using Build Tools 2015 without Visual Studio

I installed Visual C++ Build Tools 2015 on my machine running Windows 7.
In Windows SDK 8.1 and 10 there is no Windows XP targeting platform support.
It was introduced in Windows SDK 7.1A, but I can't find the download for it. It is also included in Visual Studio 2012 Update 4, but I would rather not install Visual Studio for it.
Is there any way to target Windows XP (v110_xp) using only Build Tools 2015?
I think SDK 7.1 + Visual Studio 2010 were the last version to support XP without having to install an additional taget Windows SDK 7.1. But it is tricky to install old versions of that SDK if you have installed more recent version of VS. Also VS2010 doesn't have complete support for the C++11 since it predates that.
Since SDK 8 the compilers are not included, and should be installed from VS Express and/or Community. See this if you want to compile C++11 code tagetting XP Configuring C++ 11 Programs for Windows XP. If I recall correctly the _xp taget was not included in the RTM version, and you should install the SP1.

How to install one version of visual studio 2013 with c++ 2010, 2012 and 2013 toolsets

How can I install visual studio 2013 with c++ 2010, 2012 and 2013 toolsets without installing any other visual studio versions (express or any other versions).
I need this so that I can keep my pc light and clean. Are there any alternatives to installing multiple visual studio versions for c++ toolsets?
I am developing a plugin for a program that has multiple version each compiled in c++ 2010 and c++ 2012 so I need those version of c++ toolset. For daily use I need visual studio 2013.
In the end I installed the express editions that use around 800mb each and do not add so much clutter.
MSDN's website says that if you want the C++ 2010 and C++ 2012 toolsets with VS2013, you'll need to install those VS versions on that particular machine. Link here
I don't think there are other alternatives to that.