Why does my Visual Studio Win32 project require .net 3.5 sp1 to install?

Question

Using Visual Studio 2008, I created a c++ Win32 project. To release the program, I made a visual studio setup project within the same solution. The setup.exe prompts my users to install .Net 3.5 SP1, which is often a 15+ minute install and only allowed to administrator level accounts. If they do not there is an error along the lines of "wrong framework". I am confused over what in my project requires .Net 3.5 SP1. I suspect just because that is the framework my PC is on.. is there a way to broaden which frameworks it will run on? The code is mostly win32 API calls. Just in case, here are my dependancies and #includes:

gdiplus.lib
comctl32.lib
Winmm.lib
d3d9.lib

(the setup project automatically added comdlg32.dll, then tells me to exclude it)

#include <windows.h>
#include <tchar.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <string.h>

#include <commctrl.h>     
#include <process.h>
#include <sstream>
#include <math.h>
#include <d3d9.h>
#include <time.h>
#include <gdiplus.h>

My guess is that somewhere through windows.h there is a WIN_VER or similar version setting that is set to .Net 3.5 SP1, and this is where the dependancy comes from. If that is the case, and I need to define a different version, I would love to hear everyone's advice on does / don'ts / and how-to and how far back can I go for maximum inclusion. Thanks!

-Jeff

Answer 1

Have you checked the prerequisites on the installer project? (Right click -> properties; Prerequesites button).

On the test project I created, the .Net framework is selected by default (I assume it doesn't actually analyse the projects being installed, as it doesn't include the C++ runtime libraries by default, either)

Answer 2

In VS 2008 the default target framework is .NET 3.5.

For C++ on the Common Properties page there's a "Targeted Framework" drop down, but on the test project I created it's greyed out, so it looks like this can't be changed after the project has been created.

I created a second C++ project and selected the 2.0 Template from the New Project dialog and that had 2.0 in the "Targeted Framework".

So if you want to target a lower version of the framework it looks like you've got to create your project correctly in the first place.

EDIT: As to which version of the framework you should target - it all depends(!)

Do you need to use any of the 3.0 or 3.5 features? If not then go for 2.0. If you do then select that one and take the hit of the download. I can't say how likely it is that any class of user will have a particular version installed. As time goes on it will be increasingly likely that they will have 3.5 installed as other apps will require it.

Answer 3

Well for C# projects, if you right click the Project file in Solution Explorer, and go to Properties, You can change the Target Framework on the "Application" tab. Is there something similar in the C++ Project Properties