How do I compile for Windows XP with Visual Studio 2012?

Question

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.

Solution 1

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

Solution 2

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