I have a VS2008 solution with several libraries and 4 console apps. All build and run correctly in 32 bit mode. The libraries all build and run in x64 mode in another solution with a C# app and a C++/CLI interface layer.
Now I need to build an x64 flavor of the 4 console apps (functional and unit tests for the libraries).
On the Configuration Manager dialog, the Platform dropdown for these 4 projects offers only Win32 as an option. (x64 is also there for the libraries). The Edit and New options are there but do not seem to offer a way to create an x64 choice.
Presumably VS2008 is disallowing x64 for some reason. Is there some other attribute or option I need to set first?
EDIT: Trying to create a new platform in Configuration Manager fails because there already is an x64 platform. It is available to all the library projects.
If you don’t get “x64” in the New Platform combo then the x64 C/C++ compilers are not installed. They are not by default (remarkably) unless you started the VS2008 install with the Custom option and turned the option on. Rerun setup.exe to add them, don’t forget to rerun the SP1 setup as well. You can double-check by verifying if the vc\bin\amd64 folder is present in the VS install folder, that’s the home of the 64-bit build tools.
Another trap exists when the x64 platform already exists in the solution file, brought in by the managed projects. Be sure to untick the “Create new solution platform” checkbox in the dialog.