I've already raised the question here http://www.codeguru.com/forum/showthread.php?t=391655, but since it's an own topic I make a separate post.

What are the benefits if I compile my MFC/Win32 application with VS2005 instead of VS6?

The downsides I see are:

- VS6 SP6 is around for a while, if any problems exist they are well known, and the applications have been tested over several years. VS2005 may introduce new problems so actually the whole application needs to be retested again.

- The MFC42 and C Runtime is preinstalled on every PC, so we can use the DLLs without having to deploy them, which results in smaller executable/installer size.

I know that VS2005 introduces many new things, but that is not the question here. Same code base, compiled with VS6 and VS2005, why do I want to ship the VS2005 executable?