Running Win32 Applications on Windows XP

Question

I want to create a simple application in Win32/C that doesn't use any special libraries or anything. Just what comes with Windows XP. How do I setup the properties so I am not adding anything else because on some of the computers that I run the release on, it says that it is not a "valid windows 32 application". I believe that is because the computer needs the 4.0 .net framework, but I'm not sure. How can I just create a simple C application that I can run on any XP computer?

Thanks,

Charles Hood

Answer 1

Hi Charles,

the problem is not the .Net Framework 4. When you create a plain C/C++ application, the standard is really that a plain win32 application is created.

But the binary format was changed and Windows XP does not support the new format.

What version of Visual Studio are you using? With 2010 a solution was to also add the older C/C++ compiler to create these files. If you use 2012 then you can simply tell the compiler to create a binary that also runs on Windows XP (Requires Update 1 so please install it if you are missing it!).

If you tell us the version you are using, then I can give further information on what to do. (Sorry, I am to busy to lookup both right now.)

With kind regards,

Konrad

Answer 2

Ok im using visual studio 2012 for desktop... thanks though!