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Asked: 2026-06-12T22:36:10+00:00

My software is written in C++/MFC. I target Windows XP and later. Hence, I

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My software is written in C++/MFC. I target Windows XP and later. Hence, I cannot upgrade to Visual Studio 11 since MFC 11.0 does not support Windows XP. Still, I would like to benefit from the improved optimizer in VC11. (Currently, I don’t need the new C++11 stuff.)

I can think of two solutions, but maybe there are others too:

  1. Replacing the compiler in VC10 with the one from VC11.
  2. Upgrading to VC11 and use old MFC 10 from VC10.

Which approach would you recommend?

Edit: Visual Studio 2012 seems to have C++ support for XP. Does this apply MFC too?

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  1. Editorial Team

    While you can change Platform Toolsets to VC10 or before, this is not exactly ideal.

    Pending an OOB update from Microsoft (see below), you can NOT target XP/2003 with VC11. You can only switch platform toolsets. The CRT uses NT6+ specific APIs.

    Indeed, I want the optimizations of VC11 as well. However, I must maintain support for XP/2003.

    Microsoft announced, actually prior to the RTM of VS2012, that support for XP/2003 would be re-enabled for VC11 in some pending out of band update ‘later this fall’ (of 2012). Here we wait …

    The CTP of ‘Update 1’ has now been released, supporting XP as a build target for VC11 (as a specifically set CRT differentiated from VC11). It is available for download here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/vcblog/archive/2012/10/08/10357555.aspx .. Released 2 days ago (Oct 8 2012).

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