C Program Written in VS2012 Works w/ Win7/8/2008R2/2012, but not 2003/XP/32bit?

Question

I have to start by saying that I am very much a programming noob. I do not understand all the compiler options or nuances of the IDE, not by a longshot. But I am trying to teach

Answer 1

VS2012 originally shipped without supporting XP/2003. The updated CRT and runtime support libraries are using too many Windows api functions that are not available on those operating systems. This created quite a stir among its customers, to put it mildly, and they re-engineered the libraries to dynamically bind to these functions and limp along it they are missing. This was made available in Update 1, you'll need to use Project + Properties, General, Platform Toolset = v110_xp to build programs that use those libraries.

Note how it changes a linker setting, the important one, Linker > System > Minimum Required Version = "5.01". Which ensures that the executable file is marked to be compatible with the XP sub-system version. You'll also build against SDK version 7.1, the last one that is still compatible with XP.

When you use the default toolset (v110) then you target sub-system 6.00 and SDK version 8. Version 6.00 was the last major kernel revision, started with Vista.

A brief overview of the new api functions being used to give you a (very rough) idea what is missing in the XP version:

• FlsAlloc, FlsFree, FlsGetValue, FlsSetValue : safe thread-local storage
• InitializeCriticalSectionEx, CreateSemaphoreEx : safety
• SetThreadStackGuarantee : stability
• CreateThreadPoolTimer, SetThreadPoolTimer, WaitForThreadPoolTimerCallbacks, CloseThreadPoolTimer : cheaper timers
• CreateThreadPoolWait, SetThreadPoolWait, CloseThreadPoolWait : cheaper waits?
• FlushProcessWriteBuffers, GetCurrentProcessorNumber, GetLogicalProcessorInformation : threading
• FreeLibraryWhenCallbackReturns : stability?
• CreateSymbolicLink : functionality
• InitOnceExecuteOnce : unknown
• SetDefaultDllDirectories : unknown
• EnumLocalesEx, CompareStringEx, GetDateFormatEx, GetLocalInfoEx, GetTimeFormatEx, GetUserDefaultLocaleName, IsValidLocaleName, LCMapStringEx : better locale support