VS.Net 2005 required on Build box with .Net 2.0 C++ Projects?

Question

We have a build box that uses CruiseControl.Net and has been building VB.Net and C# projects using msbuild. All I have installed on the box as far as .Net is concerned is .Net 2.0 SDK (I'm trying to keep the box as clean as possible). We are now trying to get a C++ app building on this box. The problem we are running into is that the header files (e.g. windows.h) are not installed with the SDK.

Do I have to install VS 2005 to get this to work?

Edit:

As a couple people have answered, I had actually downloaded the 3.5 Platform SDK, but the applications built on this box MUST run on boxes that do not have 3.5 installed. By installing the 3.5 SDK on my 2.0 build box, am I compromising my build box?

Edit:

I'm going to leave this as unanswered, but thought I would add that I went ahead and installed Visual Studio on the box and all is well. I hate having to do that, but didn't want to run the risk of having a 3.5 SDK on my 2.0 build box. I would still love to hear a better solution.

Answer 1

Visual Studio is not needed, but for C++ you need the Platform SDK as well:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=484269E2-3B89-47E3-8EB7-1F2BE6D7123A&displaylang=en

Edit: There is also one for Windows 2008/Vista, not sure which is the correct one:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=E6E1C3DF-A74F-4207-8586-711EBE331CDC&displaylang=en

Answer 2

No, you have to install the windows platform SDK.

You'll need to download this:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=E6E1C3DF-A74F-4207-8586-711EBE331CDC&displaylang=en

Edit: @Michael Stum You need the Server 2008 / Vista / .NET 3.5 SDK version.

Answer 3

Depending on what you are using in C++ (MFC, ATL, etc) you are probably going to have to install Visual Studio Professional (not express) as a lot of the libraries and headers are part of Visual Studio and not included in the SDK or Visual Studio Express (if you are doing managed C++ using .Net as the main framework then installing the SDK will be enough). We run our build boxes on VM's and so like to have as little installed as possible, so I spent a fair bit of time trying to get things working by installing as little as possible and for our C++ I ended up having to install Visual Studio.

Answer 4

I don't see why having .NET 3.5 would comprimise the build box - 2.0 and 3.5 co-exist without a problem. The only concern I could see would be a developer upgrading a solution to VS2008 without your "permission" and the build not failing...

Answer 5

In general, you need some set of SDKs (Software Development Kits) to be able to build, and some set of redistributable packages to run.

In case it's not obvious, you should be testing your product on an otherwise clean machine before you ship, so you know you got the dependencies right.