The difference between tools v140 and v140_xp, v110 and v110_xp, etc.

Question

What is the difference between a toolbox with _xp and without. Why are there no tools in the example with _vista or maybe _7 ? When I compile in Windows 7 using the v140 , will it run in Windows XP / Vista?

Answer 1

Starting with Visual Studio 2012, its default toolbox (v110) no longer supports Windows XP. Thus, you could create programs for Windows Vista and newer.

Visual Studio developers received a lot of protests from users because users have their own clients who are still using Windows XP. Thus, Visual Studio developers introduced v110_xp in Visual Studio 2012 Update 4, which also supports Windows XP.

With all the later versions of Visual Studio (2013 → v120, 2015 → v140), they continued this approach, so you have an additional set of tools for Windows XP and newer (v120_xp and v140_xp).

If you create programs that should only be used in Windows Vista or later, then you should use the default toolbox (without the suffix _xp). But if you need your programs to run under Windows XP, you need to use the toolbox with the suffix _xp.