What do I need to download to use MFC without Visual Studio?

Question

I've got Visual Studio 2008 express, and I need to use afx.h and some other things from MFC. Is there an SDK I can download that includes those? I downloaded the latest Windows SDK, but that didn't include it.

Thanks.

Answer 1

This question is rather old but i felt i needed to spread some truth and negate some of the fantasies about MFC :

Its is completely free and always will be. You simply need to deploy the REDIST packages instead of your MSVC library as described here :

MFC:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/ide/redistributing-the-mfc-library

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VS2017 DK libraries:

https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/productinfo/2017-redistribution-vs

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/ide/redistributing-visual-cpp-files

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VS2015 DK libraries :

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms235299.aspx

https://www.visualstudio.com/license-terms/distributable-code-microsoft-visual-studio-2015-rc-microsoft-visual-studio-2015-sdk-rc-includes-utilities-buildserver-files/

Answer 2

MFC isn't free. You should buy at least Standard Edition of the Visual Studio.

Answer 3

MFC is the proprietary class collection for Microsoft paid customer so I don't think you can get them FOC (well legally of course).

You can consider Win32++ which attempt to mimic MFC functionalities and its open source.