Determing the version of Windows SDK

[humble_learner]

Hi,

How would one determine the version of Windows SDK being used in the development of a product ? Is the Windows SDK version the same as the version of Visual Studio being installed for the development or is there any other way of finding out the version ?

I was wondering if there is anything available in the VC++ project/solution file which would indicate the version & location of Windows SDK being used.

[cilu]

No, it's not the same as the version of Visual Studio. They have nothing to do with each other. You could use Windows SDK with other tools too.

You can find the installed versions by going to c:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\. The folder names contain version numbers, i.e. v5.0, v6.0A, v7.0A, etc.

In your project you can specify which version you want to target.

[humble_learner]

Hi,

I could locate the Windows SDK installation at the locations you mentioned in a Windows Vista machine, but I dont see anything similar in a Windows XP machine.

I created a dummy pure VC++ console based application and analyzed the project settings, but could not locate any reference to Windows SDK versions being used. Could you kindly mention where exactly the version could be indicated ?

Is there a chance that Visual Studio reads up some setting in the registry to detect the version and location of Windows SDK being used ?

This is a VS2005 based pure C++ project built on a Windows XP machine.

[VictorN]

Hi,

I could locate the Windows SDK installation at the locations you mentioned in a Windows Vista machine, but I dont see anything similar in a Windows XP machine.

Strange! My XP (+ SP3)machine does contain C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows folder with subfolders:
v5.0
v6.0A
v7.0A

[Krishnaa]

Hi,

I could locate the Windows SDK installation at the locations you mentioned in a Windows Vista machine, but I dont see anything similar in a Windows XP machine.

I created a dummy pure VC++ console based application and analyzed the project settings, but could not locate any reference to Windows SDK versions being used. Could you kindly mention where exactly the version could be indicated ?

Is there a chance that Visual Studio reads up some setting in the registry to detect the version and location of Windows SDK being used ?

This is a VS2005 based pure C++ project built on a Windows XP machine.

Visual Studio refers to the latest SDK that you have installed by looking at the environmental variables such as Include and Lib.

[VictorN]

Is there a chance that Visual Studio reads up some setting in the registry to detect the version and location of Windows SDK being used ?

Who knows?!
But yes, there is chance that Visual Studio reads up some setting in the registry to detect the version and location of Windows SDK. Just because there are some keys in registry like:

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft SDKs
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\External Tools
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0\External Tools
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Assoc_SvcTraceViewer_Proj_x86_enu
• ....

with subkeys and values containing C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows folder ...

[Krishnaa]

I don't think it's the registry, look at tools->directory settings, there it fixates onto those SDK versions based on the configuration.

[humble_learner]

Strange! My XP (+ SP3)machine does contain C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows folder with subfolders:
v5.0
v6.0A
v7.0A

I have a Windows XP SP3 machine too, and looks like the Windows SDK is available at
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\PlatformSDK\

As per Krishnaa's adivise, I looked at the [Tools->Options->VC++ Directories (LibraryFiles)], the path is specified as $(VCInstallDir)PlatformSDK\lib.

There seems no indication to suggest the "version" of the Windows SDK that is being used over here.

[Krishnaa]

So, then you do not have Windows SDK, you have the default SDK that comes with Visual Studio, whose version is not important.

[humble_learner]

There's another folder ---> C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0, which I assume are the SDK specific to developing .NET based applications (not many header files and lib files are available here)

Just curious, but would the default Platform SDK fall anywhere in the version list provided at the following link : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Windows_SDK ?

When you have the set up as is available in my machine, in what circumstances would you go about explicitly installing Windows SDK on top of what is available ?

[Paul McKenzie]

In what circumstances would you go about explicitly installing Windows SDK on top of what is available ?

When you discover that the constant, function, macro, lib file, dll, etc. doesn't exist in your current version of the SDK, and only exists in the later version.

Regards,

Paul McKenzie