Dll compiled under Windows 7 doesn't work in Windows XP

Question

I'm building an addon for NodeJS.

Works just right in Windows 7. But in Windows XP it won't load, doesn't open it no matter what I do. ERROR: Unable to load shared library c:\tst\tst.node

I'm compiling the DLL from VS2010 with the following options:

• c/c++ opts

  /I"c:\tst\nodemodule\cvv8\include" /I"c:\tst\nodemodule\node-src\deps\uv\include" /I"c:\tst\nodemodule\node-src\deps\v8\include" /I"c:\tst\nodemodule\node-src\src" /I"c:\tst\nodemodule\node-src\deps\zlib" /I"c:\tst\nodemodule\node-src\deps\http_parser" /I"c:\tst\nodemodule\cvv8\include\cvv8" /Zi /nologo /W0 /WX- /O2 /Oi /Oy- /GL /D "WIN32" /D "NDEBUG" /D "_WINDOWS" /D "_USRDLL" /D "TST_EXPORTS" /D "_WINDLL" /D "_UNICODE" /D "UNICODE" /Gm- /EHsc /GS /Gy /fp:precise /Zc:wchar_t /Zc:forScope /Fp"Release\tst.pch" /Fa"Release\" /Fo"Release\" /Fd"Release\vc100.pdb" /Gd /analyze- /errorReport:queue

• linker opts

  /OUT:"c:\tst\tst.node" /INCREMENTAL:NO /NOLOGO /DLL "kernel32.lib" "user32.lib" "gdi32.lib" "winspool.lib" "comdlg32.lib" "advapi32.lib" "shell32.lib" "ole32.lib" "oleaut32.lib" "uuid.lib" "odbc32.lib" "odbccp32.lib" /MANIFEST:NO /ManifestFile:"Release\tst.node.intermediate.manifest" /ALLOWISOLATION /MANIFESTUAC:"level='asInvoker' uiAccess='false'" /PDB:"c:\tst\tst.pdb" /SUBSYSTEM:WINDOWS /OPT:REF /OPT:ICF /PGD:"c:\tst\tst.pgd" /LTCG /TLBID:1 /DYNAMICBASE /NXCOMPAT /MACHINE:X86 /ERRORREPORT:QUEUE

What's wrong? Is this UTF-8 related?

Answer 1

Before including windows headers (usually in stdafx.h), try setting the windows version macros to ensure you're not using api's that are only available after XP.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa383745(v=vs.85).aspx#setting_winver_or__win32_winnt

Answer 2

The best tool to diagnose such problems is the dependency walker. Open your dll in dw and you'll immediately see why it won't load: most likely there are some dlls/libs missing your dll depends upon.