Comments on: Deployment of VC2008 apps without installing anything

By: Articles about _bind_to_current_vclibs_version 1 volume 2 « Article Directory

Sat, 12 Jun 2010 14:01:57 +0000

[…] Jochen Kalmbach’s Blog ” Blog Archive ” Deployment of VC2008 … The problem is that by default VC2008 uses the DLL-version of the CRT/MFC. … #define _BIND_TO_CURRENT_VCLIBS_VERSION 1. in stdafx.h (at the top) or in your project … […]

By: Troubleshooting VC++ Side by Side Problems « DAVID Systems – R&D Blog

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:36:02 +0000

[…] http://blog.kalmbach-software.de/2009/05/27/deployment-of-vc2008-apps-without-installing-anything/ […]

By: Gautam Jain

Gautam Jain — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:58:41 +0000

Fantastic. Thanks.

_BIND_TO_CURRENT_VCLIBS_VERSION tip worked for me.

By: Gavin

Gavin — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:28:37 +0000

You are a star, sir. This page has been really helpful. Thankyou.

By: Remington Furman

Remington Furman — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:00:15 +0000

Thank you very much for the tip about manually correcting the version in the manifest files. I never would have guessed that they’d ship a bogus manifest with the DLLs.

Setting version=”9.0.21022.8″ worked perfectly for me.

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 01:26:42 +0000

Thanks for the _BIND_TO_CURRENT_VCLIBS_VERSION tip!

By: Svetoslav Kyuchukov

Svetoslav Kyuchukov — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 11:28:26 +0000

Hello Jochen,

Thanks for the useful article. The described technique work also fine for deploying of debug versions, by working with corresponding debug folders and manifest files:
(Microsoft.VC90.DebugCRT, Microsoft.VC90.DebugCRT.manifest, etc.)
Currently I work on a VS2008 solution that contain 4 executables and 18 dlls, and deploying debugs is a practical (for Testers, PMs, etc. purposes).

And further, even the Common Control Dll (comctl32.dll) can be deployed locally, skipping the WinSxS. This can be done with the following steps:

1. Create a folder “Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls” in deployment exe folder, for example
MyApp\exe\Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls

2. copy comctl32.dll file from C:\WINDOWS\WinSxS\x86_Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls_6595b64144ccf1df_6.0.0.0_x-ww_1382d70a folder
into MyApp/exe/Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls folder

3. copy x86_Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls_6595b64144ccf1df_6.0.0.0_x-ww_1382d70a.Manifest file from C:\WINDOWS\WinSxS\Manifests folder
into MyApp/exe/Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls folder

4. rename x86_Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls_6595b64144ccf1df_6.0.0.0_x-ww_1382d70a.Manifest to Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls.Manifest

5. remove publicKeyToken from this new manifest (Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls.Manifest)

6. in all dlls and exes manifests remove publicKeyToken from the section described “Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls”.

Now comctl32.dll is deployed locally, and WinSxS is bypassed.

Best regards,
Svetoslav Kyuchukov

Eurorisksystems Ltd.
Varna, BG

By: Chuck

Chuck — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 13:11:50 +0000

Figured it out…It’s a long story. If anyone wants to hear it, let me know.

By: Chuck

Chuck — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:56:54 +0000

I have updated my dlls and manifest files to the new version, 9.0.30729.4148 and my exe won’t run. I have opened my .exe file and it is looking for old version (9.0.30729.1). I found the ***.exe.intermediate.manifest in the Release dir. It says old version. I can’t figure out what creates ***.exe.intermediate.manifest since it is created during the build.

By: jkalmbach

jkalmbach — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:13:04 +0000

No, this is not possible.
The easiest way is to use static linking:
http://blog.kalmbach-software.de/2008/03/03/screencast-statically-link-to-the-c-runtime-to-prevent-vcredist-and-overcome-application-configuration-problems/

By: Michiel

Michiel — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:04:09 +0000

Would it be possible to link to the VC80 libraries within VC2008 ?
We have a lot of systems around with the 2005 redist already installed. We would like to develop using VC2008 but when we update our software we don’t like to install a lot of new dependencies.
Thx

By: jkalmbach

jkalmbach — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 16:00:16 +0000

Yes. There are the same steps… expect the version numbers are different; you need to look at your applications-manifest to lookup the correct version number.

By: Ezmail

Ezmail — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:59:42 +0000

Hi.. Thanks for the information.. Currently I have the same problem, but I use VC 2005. Is that same steps?