Microsoft Visual C++ supported target Windows versions

Microsoft Visual C++ supported target Windows versions – Supported Platforms – Target Platforms.

MSVC versions:

  • 6.0 Visual C++ 6.0.
  • 7.X Visual C++ .NET 2002, 2003 (7.0, 7.1).
  • 8.0 Visual C++ 2005.
  • 9.0 Visual C++ 2008.
  • 10.0 Visual C++ 2010.
  • 11.0 Visual C++ 2012.

6.0

7.X

8.0

9.0

10.0

11.0
Windows 95

ok

ok

hack
Windows 98

ok

ok

ok
Windows Me

ok

ok

ok
Windows 2000

ok

ok

ok

ok

ok¹
Windows Server 2000

ok

ok

ok

ok

ok¹
Windows XP

ok

ok

ok

ok

ok

ok²
Windows Server 2003

ok

ok

ok

ok

ok

ok²
Windows Server 2003 R2

ok

ok

ok

ok

ok

ok²
Windows Vista

ok

ok

ok

ok

ok

ok
Windows Server 2008

ok

ok

ok

ok

ok

ok
Windows 7

ok

ok

ok

ok

ok

ok
Windows Server 2008 R2

ok

ok

ok

ok

ok

ok
Windows 8

ok

ok

ok

ok

ok

ok
Windows 8 RT / ARM / METRO

ok
Windows Server 2012

ok

ok

ok

ok

ok

ok

6.0

7.X

8.0

9.0

10.0

11.0

NOTES:

  • This information is provided “as is”.
  • It is possible to build for any lower target (in some configurations), but it is not officially supported.
  • Most of this information is acquired by testing and analyzing System Requirements of various Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable Packages
  • Visual C++ 2005 supports Windows 2000 beginning from Service Pack 3.
  • Visual C++ 2005 SP1 does not support Windows 98 and Me, but compiled exe usually works on these OSes.
  • Visual C++ 2008 supports Windows 2000 beginning from Service Pack 4.
  • Visual C++ 2010 supports Windows XP beginning from Service Pack 3. Source: Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package (x86) and Visual Studio 2010 – Visual C++ Supported Platforms
  • Windows 95 is Windows 95 and Windows 95 Second Edition.
  • Windows 98 is Windows 98 and Windows 98 Second Edition.

¹ To target Windows 2000 must use Visual Studio Multi-Targeting (VS 2008 toolkit). Using VS 2010 tools will not run on Windows 2000.

² To target Windows XP and Server 2003 use Multi-Targeting. Microsoft promised to release “an update to Visual Studio 2012 that will enable C++ applications to target Windows XP”.

Updated Aug 15, 2010.
Updated Sep 5, 2012.

Opening tab separated file in Excel: Excel has detected that ‘file.txt’ is a SYLK file, but cannot load it

You try to open a tab separated file in Excel and get error ‘Excel has detected that ‘test.txt’ is a SYLK file, but cannot load it. Either the file has errors or it is not a SYLK file format. Click OK to try to open the file in a different format.’

The file looks something like:
ID DATA
1 data1
2 data2

The problem is caused by the first field name, that is ‘ID’ in this case. Change it to something else and problem will go away.

Update: there is a Microsoft Support article “SYLK: File format is not valid” error message when you open file that describes this behavior.

Update 2: SYmbolic LinK (SYLK)