i have visual studio 2005 and i am writing a shell extension for windows explorer.
It works in Windows Vista 32bit where i compile the project.
It also works on Windows 7 64bit when the project has been compiled on Windows7 64bit.
Now i want to test it also on Windows 7 32bit when the project has been compiled on Windows Vista 32bit but it does not work !
Are there compatibility issues between c++ versions ?
The shell extension dll won't register. (side by side error).
Is it necessary to compile it on Windows 7 32bit to make it work ?
My dll is based on the example of "complete idiot's guide to writing shell extensions" on codeproject.com
Thanks !
it should not be compiled in debug mode but only in release mode.
also in a frequent example on the internet there is a bug and the int should get
converted to IntPtr...
Related
I develop a large open source C++ program. On Windows, we typically build our downloadable releases with Visual Studio Express. In the past, I've tried to use an old version of Windows and an old version of Visual Studio to try to maintain compatibility with as many user's machines as possible -- and to also keep the development environment as accessible as possible to contributors.
We do use some C++11. We currently use VS 2010 Express on Windows 7 Enterprise SP1 (64 bit). We target Win32. We do not use any .Net stuff.
Unfortunately, as built, our program crashes on Windows 8.1 -- it starts to load, but crashes with a non helpful error message 'myprogram.exe Has stopped working.' I can't yet tell if this 'should work', or if it is a bug in our program that only Win8 triggers (it works fine on earlier Windows as well as OSX and Linux).
I'm finding it very difficult to figure out the target compatibility matrix for Windows & Visual Studio. Assume that all versions of Windows and Visual Studio are available.
So, what version of Visual Studio and/or Windows SDK 'should work' to produce a single executable that will work on the widest range of Windows versions?
Or, what is the minimum number of builds (and how) we could do to target the widest array of Windows versions?
Alternatively, would MinGW provide a substantially better result for us? If so, which version & platform should we use?
We currently only build 32-bit versions, but how would going 64-bit change this discussion?
I have created an application using Qt 4.8.4, and now I have to distribute it on Windows 2000 machines, among the others. I have already tried searching over the Internet for a clear explanation about it, but I can't find a confirmation on what's the older Windows version actually supported by Qt.
The application runs fine on Windows XP (both 32 and 64 bit) and Windows 7 but, when I try to launch it on Windows 2000 I receive the well-known error "[Application name].exe is not a valid win32 application.", and I guess that the error relies on the unsupported Windows version.
The application is a "simple" one, it just need QtCore4.dll and QtGui4.dll as dependencies.
If it can help, I am developing on a Windows 7 64 bit machine, using Qt 4.8.4 and Qt Creator 2.7.1. If I go under Tools->Options->Build&Run->Kits->Manual->Desktop, I have "Microsoft Visual C++ Compiler 10.0 (x86)" as the compiler in use. Do I have to select a different one, maybe?
Thanks for any answer.
EDIT: What I've done after reading #vahancho's answer:
"Move" the project from Qt Creator to Visual Studio 2010, using CMake;
Install Visual Studio Express 2008 (enabling the V90 Platform Toolset, this way)
Open the project from VS2010, and go under Project Properties->Configuration Properties->General and change Platform Toolset to V90;
Recompile the project;
Now, I've tried to run the application compiled this way on a virtual machine, mounting Windows 2000, but I get another error, this time: "The procedure entry point DecodePointer could not be located in the dynamic link library KERNEL32.dll".
Well, after some investigations I found that running MSVC10 applications on Windows 2000 is not possible. You have to build it with at most MSVC9 (Visual Studio 2008), or use the VS2010 Multi Targetting feature to let VC++2010 use the VC++2008 compilers and libraries. Please also refer to this Microsoft Connect discussion.
OK, some time has passed, but I'd like to give a definitive answer to this question of mine. Unfortunately, what I was asking for it's not possible. #vahancho's answer is right, and the solution he pointed out is correct for the majority of situations. However, DecodePointer is "included" in Windows XP SP 2 kernel, and it's not possible to compile an application using it for an older Microsoft OS, even by choosing the VC++2008 compiler.
An additional reference is given by this post on CodeProject.
Fortunately for me, my application was simple enough to let me rewrite it using the good old VB6 :)
I have a C++ application, which is built on Windows 7 using VS 2010 IDE against VS2008 toolset. I have verified that it depends on msvc*90.dll.
The problem occurs when i move it to XP professional SP3 machine. I have installed the 32-bit vs 2008 redistributable package too.
However, the application fails to run. No error is reported. Nothing is logged into system even viewer as well.
Any hints?
PS: I have seen the following threads already.
Program Built on Win7 won't run on WinXP
How do I compile for windows XP under windows 7 / visual studio 2008
Have you checked the DLL in that Windows XP system with Dependency Walker. This may help you find if you are not missing another dependency or not dealing with side by side execution problems.
This issue is resolved now. The problem was not related to dependencies. Instead, it was some directory not existing in the file system.
I have a C++ program. It's quite simple - shows an image (splash screen) and launches another application, then closes when that other application is started. Actually, this one: http://www.olsonsoft.com/blogs/stefanolson/post/A-better-WPF-splash-screen.aspx with very minor changes (my splash screen image and my program is launched instead of the sample one).
It works good on my Windows 7 developer machine. Also it works on another (virtual) machine with Windows XP SP2 and Visual Studio 2008 installed. But it doesn't work on just the same virtual Windows XP SP2 machine without Visual Studio. It shows an error: "Entry point memmove_s could not be located in the dynamic link library msvcrt.dll".
I have found that a problem possible is in WindowsCodec DLL (no such DLL in clear XP SP2 installation, but it is in Windows/system32 folder of XP SP2 with Visual Studio) so I copied it to the application folder on the clear system. After that the program partially works (launches another application after start) but didn't show the splash screen image.
Installation of Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable Package (both 2008 and 2010) didn't help.
I've found a recommendation to use static linking in Visual Studio (Multi Threaded (/MT) option in project properties -> C/C++ -> Code Generation), but it also didn't help.
Also I have tried DependencyWalker but cannot find any differences in dependencies for both test systems.
Anyone have any ideas why this could happen? I'm completely new in C++, hope this is something obvious that I just don't know...
Your program has a dependency on the .NET framework, at least version 3.0. That is not available on an XP SP2 install by default. If you don't see windowscodecs.dll then you didn't install the proper version of .NET. This does work when you install VS2008 because it also installs .NET.
The download is here.
C++ programs become dependent the specific versions of the crt library that it was compiled on. If the running system does not have that version in the either the local program directory, or the systems WinSxS directory. This is a specific issue with C++ progams compiled using VS 2005 or 2008. See here for more information : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Side-by-side_assembly
You might see this problem go away if you use VS 2010, as it uses a different method for dependency resolution.
I have compiled a dll on Windows Server 2008 64 bit edition. It works fine on that version of Windows, but if I switch to Windows 7 or XP 64 bit edition the dll does not work. How can I make the dll compatible with all three versions of 64bit edition windows?
I am using Visual Studio 2010.
You can use a program called Dependency Walker to see what dependencies your .dll file has, and eliminate the ones that are different between versions of Windows.
Check how _WIN32_WINNT and WINVER macros were defined in your DLL. To make your DLL compatible with Windows XP you should define them as 0x0501. That lets you find all dependency problems at compile time. More information about these macros you could find here.