Targetting Windows XP from Visual Studio 2012

Question

Good day everyone,

I recently upgraded to Visual Studio 2012 and I'm loving the improved C++11 support and the dark theme. However, I'm trying to write a program that runs on Windows XP and higher, and I'm running into some strange issue.

The first time I tried to run my program on a XP virtual machine I got the "This is not a valid Win32 program" error message. Some googling revealed that I needed to apply Update 1 to VS to be able to target Windows XP. I searched for that but found Update 2 instead. I applied that and set the platform toolset to v110_xp, then recompiled my program and tried to run it again. This time I got no error message, but upon trying to start the program I hear XP's error sound (the same one you hear when calling MessageBox with MB_ICONERROR) and then nothing else happens. No mention of anything in Windows XP's Event viewer either.

I thought perhaps Update 2 messed something else up, so I completely uninstalled VS2012, including all the MS SQL crap it leaves behind, reinstalled it and only applied Update 1. Compiled my code with the XP toolset again, but the same thing happens. An error sound but no message when trying to start my program.

Some more googling revealed that I had to define PSAPI_VERSION to 1 to target the pre Windows 7 version of the Process API so I did that, but the issue remains.

I began to think something was wrong with my code so I made the most basic Hello World program, but it STILL has the same issue. So I'm out of ideas now.

Here is the code I used to compile the Hello World program:

main.cpp:

#include "winapi.h"

int WINAPI wWinMain(HINSTANCE inst, HINSTANCE prev, wchar_t *cmdline, int show)
{
    MessageBox(HWND_DESKTOP, L"Let's hope this works in Windows XP...", L"Testing 1... 2... 3...", MB_ICONERROR);

    return 0;
}

winapi.h:

#ifndef WINAPI_H_INCLUDED
#define WINAPI_H_INCLUDED

#ifdef _WIN32

// WINDOWS DEFINES /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

// If this is not a console program, let the linker include a manifest to
// enable visual styles.
#ifndef _CONSOLE
# pragma comment(linker,"/manifestdependency:\"type='win32' name='Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls' version='6.0.0.0' processorArchitecture='*' publicKeyToken='6595b64144ccf1df' language='*'\"")
#endif // _CONSOLE

// Shorten compile time by only including the most basic Windows definitions.
#define WIN32_LEAN_AND_MEAN

#define NOGDICAPMASKS       // CC_*, LC_*, PC_*, CP_*, TC_*, RC_
#define NOSYSMETRICS        // SM_*
#define NOICONS             // IDI_*
#define NOKEYSTATES         // MK_*
#define NOSYSCOMMANDS       // SC_*
#define NORASTEROPS         // Binary and Tertiary raster ops
#define OEMRESOURCE         // OEM Resource values (OCR_NORMAL and related constants)
#define NOATOM              // Atom Manager routines
#define NOCLIPBOARD         // Clipboard routines
#define NODRAWTEXT          // DrawText() and DT_*
#define NOKERNEL            // All KERNEL defines and routines
#define NONLS               // All NLS defines and routines
#define NOMEMMGR            // GMEM_*, LMEM_*, GHND, LHND, associated routines
#define NOMETAFILE          // typedef METAFILEPICT
#define NOMINMAX            // Macros min(a,b) and max(a,b)
#define NOOPENFILE          // OpenFile(), OemToAnsi, AnsiToOem, and OF_*
#define NOSERVICE           // All Service Controller routines, SERVICE_ equates, etc.
#define NOSOUND             // Sound driver routines
#define NOTEXTMETRIC        // typedef TEXTMETRIC and associated routines
#define NOWH                // SetWindowsHook and WH_*
#define NOCOMM              // COMM driver routines
#define NOKANJI             // Kanji support stuff.
#define NOHELP              // Help engine interface.
#define NOPROFILER          // Profiler interface.
#define NODEFERWINDOWPOS    // DeferWindowPos routines
#define NOMCX               // Modem Configuration Extensions

// Enable strict typechecking on Windows types like HANDLE, HWND and HDC.
#define STRICT

// Enable targetting of pre-Win7 Process API functions when compiling on
// VS2012 or higher.
#if _MSC_VER >= 1700
# define PSAPI_VERSION 1
#endif // _MSC_VER

// Specify the minimum versions of Windows and Internet Explorer supported
// by this code.
#define NTDDI_VERSION       NTDDI_WIN2K
#define _WIN32_WINNT        _WIN32_WINNT_WIN2K
#define WINVER              _WIN32_WINNT_WIN2K
#define _WIN32_IE           _WIN32_IE_IE50

// WINDOWS INCLUDES ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

#include 

#else // _WIN32
// OTHER OS ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
#error This software has been written with Visual C++ in mind.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

#endif // _WIN32

#endif // WINAPI_H_INCLUDED

As I've said, I compile this code by targeting the v110_xp toolset, and I statically link the CRT with /MD using the project settings window. I compiled it as x86 code and it runs fine on my Windows 7 x64 machine. Running dumpbin on the resulting executable confirms that's it's compiled as 32 bit code for operating system version 5.01 and the Windows GUI subsystem.

To make this as complete as possible, here are the executable's imports:

D:\Projects\xptest\Release>dumpbin /imports xptest.exe
Microsoft (R) COFF/PE Dumper Version 11.00.51106.1
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.


Dump of file xptest.exe

File Type: EXECUTABLE IMAGE

  Section contains the following imports:

    USER32.dll
                4070FC Import Address Table
                40B19C Import Name Table
                     0 time date stamp
                     0 Index of first forwarder reference

                  215 MessageBoxW

    KERNEL32.dll
                407000 Import Address Table
                40B0A0 Import Name Table
                     0 time date stamp
                     0 Index of first forwarder reference

                  218 GetModuleHandleW
                   8F CreateFileW
                  187 GetCommandLineW
                  300 IsDebuggerPresent
                  304 IsProcessorFeaturePresent
                  202 GetLastError
                  473 SetLastError
                  2EF InterlockedIncrement
                  2EB InterlockedDecrement
                  1C5 GetCurrentThreadId
                   EA EncodePointer
                   CA DecodePointer
                  119 ExitProcess
                  217 GetModuleHandleExW
                  245 GetProcAddress
                  367 MultiByteToWideChar
                  264 GetStdHandle
                  525 WriteFile
                  214 GetModuleFileNameW
                  24A GetProcessHeap
                  1F3 GetFileType
                  2E3 InitializeCriticalSectionAndSpinCount
                   D1 DeleteCriticalSection
                  263 GetStartupInfoW
                  3A7 QueryPerformanceCounter
                  1C1 GetCurrentProcessId
                  279 GetSystemTimeAsFileTime
                  1DA GetEnvironmentStringsW
                  161 FreeEnvironmentStringsW
                  4D3 UnhandledExceptionFilter
                  4A5 SetUnhandledExceptionFilter
                  1C0 GetCurrentProcess
                  4C0 TerminateProcess
                  4C5 TlsAlloc
                  4C7 TlsGetValue
                  4C8 TlsSetValue
                  4C6 TlsFree
                   EE EnterCriticalSection
                  339 LeaveCriticalSection
                  2CF HeapFree
                  4B2 Sleep
                  30A IsValidCodePage
                  168 GetACP
                  237 GetOEMCP
                  172 GetCPInfo
                  33E LoadLibraryExW
                  38A OutputDebugStringW
                  33F LoadLibraryW
                  418 RtlUnwind
                  2CB HeapAlloc
                  2D2 HeapReAlloc
                  511 WideCharToMultiByte
                  269 GetStringTypeW
                  2D4 HeapSize
                  32D LCMapStringW
                  157 FlushFileBuffers
                  19A GetConsoleCP
                  1AC GetConsoleMode
                  487 SetStdHandle
                  467 SetFilePointerEx
                  524 WriteConsoleW
                   52 CloseHandle

  Summary

        3000 .data
        5000 .rdata
        3000 .reloc
        1000 .rsrc
        6000 .text

As I said, I'm completely out of ideas here... I've tried everything I can think of. Any helpful comment would be very much appreciated!

Regards,

Gerard

Targetting Windows XP from Visual Studio 2012

Answers (1)

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