BYTE* / Microsoft Visual C++ Unofficial Changelists

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The official change information for the various Microsoft Visual C++ versions are typically strewn across numerous sources. This site was designed to compile a list of everything that has changed for each version in one convenient location. Official Visual C++ information prior to 7.0 (.NET) is no longer online (or is sparse and unsupported as these are highly obsolete versions). For versions including and after 7.0, Microsoft's MSDN URLs are not very reliable as they seem to be ever-changing. Their link structure seem to change too often as well, so the relevant information must be copied and maintained independent of Microsoft. The purpose of this website is to preserve history.

The source media for the changelist information may have been floppy-disk, CD-ROM or online and comprise of help files, readmes/documents, and website URLs. Besides any commentary, the information contained in the changelists are verbatim (copy-and-paste) from official Microsoft sources, but with the formatting changed and some reorganization applied. Sometimes, a lot of reorganization has been applied to maintain consistency between the different changelists.

These changelists show the unified compiler (cl.exe), language and standard library changes, but do not attempt to be exhaustive for extra technologies such as ATL, MFC, etc., especially in the later versions.

NOTE: This page is a work-in-progress and currently a hodge-podge of various bits of information with little consistency between various versions. Eventually the information displayed for each version will be consistent.

Visual C++ 1.0 - 16-bit (View Changelist)

Released in February 1993, Visual C++ 1.0 for Windows was born. This edition was designed for the 16-bit Windows 3.1 operating system. It was available in Standard and Professional editions. Microsoft considered Visual C++ as an upgrade from "Microsoft C/C++ Version 7.0", Microsoft's previous C/C++ product.

Prior to this release, Microsoft's IDE offering used for various programming products was named "Programmer's Workbench". For Visual C++ 1.0, they improved the IDE and renamed it "Visual Workbench". Surprisingly this IDE actually supported syntax coloring too!

Visual C++ 1.0 Professional (16-bit) shipped with version 8.0 of the Microsoft C/C++ Optimizing Compiler (CL.EXE) / size=96,800 bytes (95k) / file date 2/8/1993 1:01am. Visual Workbench (MSVC.EXE) was 772,208 bytes (754k). CL.EXE was an early NT 32-bit application (PE format), but was only capable of producing 16-bit targets (see below). MSVC.EXE was a Windows 16-bit application (NE format). CL.EXE supported command-line help via /? and when run without arguments, displayed:

Microsoft (R) C/C++ Optimizing Compiler Version 8.00
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corp 1984-1993. All rights reserved.

usage: cl [ option... ] filename... [ -link linkoption... ]

Visual C++ 1.0 gave the choice of 10 project types for applications (all 16-bit targets):

Windows application (.EXE)
Windows dynamic-link library (.DLL)
Visual Basic Custom Control (.VBX)
QuickWin application (.EXE)
Static library (.LIB)
Windows P-code application (.EXE)
MS-DOS application (.EXE)
MS-DOS P-code application (.EXE)
MS-DOS Overlaid application (.EXE)
MS-DOS COM application (.COM)

Some of the changelist information below was derived from the README.WRI and TOOLS.WRI. Additional changelist information came from the Books Online documentation from the 32-bit edition and other documentation present in version 1.52c.

Visual C++ 1.0 - 32-bit Edition (View Changelist)

Also known as "Visual C++ 32-bit Edition", the official release date for this version was August 24, 1993, with a suggested retail price of $599. This came 6 months after the 16-bit release of Visual C++ 1.0 and 4 months before the 16-bit release of version 1.5. Its obvious Microsoft was moving away from 16-bit as even the 16-bit versions began with the new 32-bit tools, despite not yet supporting 32-bit targets. That is without being Win32s hybrid applications.

Besides the bugfix releases of the 16-bit versions up to 1.52c, this 32-bit version would be the new standard for which all future versions of Visual C++ would be based.

Microsoft's introduction blurb from their "Books Online" help system was:

Microsoft® Visual C++™ Development System version 1.0 for Windows&trade and Windows NT™, 32-bit Edition is the latest generation of C++ products from Microsoft that significantly shortens the path to writing C++ applications for the Microsoft Windows operating system. Visual C++ 32-bit Edition does this by offering an integrated, task-oriented and 100-percent Windows NT operating system-hosted graphical environment that provides significant productivity benefits and ease of use with complete access to the power of C++.

Visual C++ 32-bit Edition is designed for experienced C++ programmers who want to create powerful 32-bit applications for either Windows 3.1 using the Win32s API, or Windows NT using the Win32 API. It is the best choice for programmers who want their applications to run on the next generation of 32-bit operating systems. It includes complete software, documentation and extensive sample code on CD-ROM. Printed documentation may also be purchased additionally.

Visual C++ (32-bit edition) was born from a revamp of Microsoft's existing C/C++ compiler from 16 to 32-bits specially designed to target the Win32 API for Windows NT. Win32s (Microsoft's framework for emulating a 32-bit application under 16-bit Windows) was also supported by the early 32-bit Visual C++ products starting with this version.

System Requirements:

An IBM™ Personal Computer, or 100 percent compatible running Microsoft Windows NT 3.1.
An Intel® 80386 or higher processor
16MB of available RAM (20MB recommended)
One CD-ROM drive supported by Windows NT
A VGA (or higher resolution) adapter and monitor
A mouse or other pointing device supported by Windows NT
A hard disk with enough disk space to install the options needed. 6MB of available storage space is the minimum requirement to run your installation from the CD-ROM. To install the full configuration of the 32-bit Edition, 80MB of free disk space is required.

Microsoft Windows or Microsoft Windows for Workgroups version 3.1 running in enhanced mode (command-line utilities can be run outside Windows but you need Windows to install Win32s files).
MS-DOS® version 3.3 or greater

Microsoft distributed the help and documentation content on CD-ROM using a framework called "Books Online".

Visual C++ 1.0 shipped with version 8.0 of the "32-bit" Microsoft C/C++ Optimizing compiler (CL.EXE) / size=87,552 bytes (86k) / file date 7/19/1993 11:33pm. Visual Workbench (MSVC.EXE) was a rather large application for 1993, measuring in at 922,112 bytes (901k). Both CL.EXE and MSVC.EXE were 32-bit applications (in the native NT PE image format). The CL.EXE command line displayed as:

Microsoft (R) 32-bit C/C++ Optimizing Compiler Version 8.00
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corp 1984-1993. All rights reserved.

usage: cl [ option... ] filename... [ -link linkoption... ]

Visual C++ 1.0 gave the choice of four project types for an NT-target:

Windows application (.EXE)
Windows dynamic-link library (.DLL)
Console application (.EXE)
Static library (.LIB)

Visual C++ 1.5 Professional - 16-bit

Version 1.5 of the development system added support for NT, MFC 2.5, OLE 2.0 and ODBC. This version appeared to only be available as the Professional edition. The RTM date was Dec 1, 1993. Version 1.5 now worked under NT for both 16 and 32-bit development although the environment was still a 16-bit product like the 16-bit version 1.0. The Professional upgrade price was $99.00. The qualifying products for this upgrade were:

Access, Delta, MASM, QuickPascal, Visual C++, COBOL, FORTRAN, QuickBasic, Test, Visual Tools Suite, C/C++, FoxPro, QuickC, or Visual Basic.

The official Microsoft Visual C++ 1.5 Announcement Presentation from Dec 1993 is available on YouTube. This presentation mentioned the following changes:

NT support for 16 and 32-bit Development:
The IDE now runs under NT and can produce binaries that will run under NT.

[bytepointer.com edit] I think 32-bit development meant via the Win32s SDK, which when linked, produced hybrid binaries that ran under 16-bit Windows 3.1 as well as NT (which only supported Win32 applications at the time). I don't think the 16-bit versions of Visual C++ were ever capable of producing pure Win32 binaries.
MFC 2.5 Enchancements:
- Implementation of OLE2 interfaces
- 20,000 lines of C++ for OLE2 added
- Leverages existing MFC 2.0 code
- New Wizards for OLE and ODBC apps
- added ODBC database classes
Integrated OLE 2.0 Support:
- Visual Editing
- Drag and Drop
- OLE Automation Support
- Structured Storage
- Component Object Model (COM) Support
Integrated ODBC Support:
- Includes ODBC Engine & Drivers
- Includes Microsoft Query

Visual C++ 1.51 - 16-bit

This version was bundled with the 32-bit Visual C++ 2.0. The Master Setup Help listed the following information about this version:

Microsoft Visual C++ version 1.51 is an upgrade of Microsoft Visual C++ version 1.5. This 16-bit development system uses the new Microsoft Foundation Library version 2.51. This version of the industry standard Microsoft Foundation Classes supports the OLE Custom Control Development Kit (CDK) to simplify developing OLE custom controls. It also runs on Windows NT 3.5.

This version came with a README.WRI, which wasn't much different than the 1.0 version.

Visual C++ 1.51 (16-bit) shipped with version 8.00c of the Microsoft C/C++ Optimizing Compiler (CL.EXE) / size=91,648 bytes (90k) / file date 9/16/1994 2:00pm. Visual Workbench (MSVC.EXE) was 775,760 bytes (758k). CL.EXE was a 32-bit PE applicaion, but MSVC.EXE remained a 16-bit NE application. CL.EXE supported command-line help via /? and when run without arguments, displayed:

Microsoft (R) C/C++ Optimizing Compiler Version 8.00c
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corp 1984-1993. All rights reserved.

usage: cl [ option... ] filename... [ -link linkoption... ]

Visual C++ 1.52x (16-bit)

The version 1.52x series of Visual C++ includes 1.52, a rumored 1.52b followed by 1.52c. Version 1.52c was the last and final release of Visual C++ which could produce 16-bit applications. Future versions of Visual C++ (2.0 and up) would be based on the 32-bit compiler and 32-bit IDE for Windows NT, capable of producing only Win32 applications. Visual C++ 4.x bundled this 16-bit version.

This version came with a README.WRI, which wasn't much different than the 1.51 version.

Visual C++ 1.52c (16-bit) shipped with version 8.00c of the Microsoft C/C++ Optimizing Compiler (CL.EXE), same as version 1.51 but with a slightly differing file date of 9/16/1994 7:00am. Visual Workbench (MSVC.EXE) was the same size as version 1.51 but it was not identical. The file date on MSVC.EXE was 1/13/1995 7:10am.

Visual C++ 2.0 (COMING SOON)

Visual C++ 4.2 (COMING SOON)

Visual C++ 5.0 (View Changelist)

The debut of Visual Studio (Visual Studio 97) was marked with the release of Visual C++ 5.0. It included all of Microsoft's programming tools in one package.

Visual C++ 6.0 (View Changelist)

Version 6.0, while retaining the IDE of 5.0, was one of the most fast, stable, and industry standard versions of Visual C++ Microsoft ever produced. This was the last version of Visual Studio before the .NET era. One of the reasons for its stability was due to the amount of bug-fixing Microsoft employed for this version. It had 6 service packs and was the first version to include MASM (version 6.15) for free with the "Processor Pack" aimed at service pack 5. Since then, Microsoft only seems to release about 1 service pack per major version and this isn't enough to fix all the bugs; that is before they introduce new bugs from all the new features with the next major release. One of the few problems I remember with this version were bugs associated with C++ templates.

Visual C++ .NET 2002 7.0 (View Changelist)

The previous version of Visual C++ 6.0 was fast, clean and polished. This version replaced the old UI with a fancier one (which took some getting used to) and added a ton of new features such as .NET paradigm (Managed C++), a tab-style interface, better IntelliSense, compiler features galore, etc. This was essentially a new product with little resemblance to 6.0, completely rewritten from the ground up. With such a drastic rewrite, it made sense that this product was full of bugs. To fully realize the potential of this version, upgrading to 7.1 was a MUST.

PROS

A massive injection of not only IDE features, but fundamental C/C++ language features so essential you would use this version over 6.0, even if you weren't keen on the new IDE.

Many bugs with C++ template handling were fixed, so that you could actually use templates without so many hacks.

The new tab-style interface greatly improved switching between different file windows; prior to this was the Windows-standard MDI interface, now a relic of the old Program Manager style of Windows 3.1: a bunch of small windows or one maximized window. The tab interface by comparison made all windows fill the client area (maximized) while providing the window names (to be clicked on) in one conventient area, not unlike the Task Bar.

Improved IntelliSense; hovering the mouse over identifiers bring up mouse tips!

The enhanced syntax coloring support was a welcome feature, providing an even finer level of control over code coloring.

A HELP button was added to the options pages!

CONS

This version was a bit slow and bloated compared to version 6.0. The IDE was no longer lightweight.

I, like many others didn't appreciate having to install the .NET framework just to use the IDE nomatter what language was being used.

When you switched between files, the IDE would unroll and re-do your solution tree-view selections (expanded/collapsed nodes) display so that it reflected the active file. This must have sounded great on paper, but because it didn't remember the parts of your tree-view that were unaffected by the active file change, it was extremely annoying. Luckily an option to turn this off was added in version 7.1: “Track Active Item in Solution Explorer”.

Some useless features were introduced that were on by default such as the Task List, but at least you could turn them off.

Many bugs existed causing the IDE to crash during editing and debugging, so it wasn't uncommon to lose valuable work. Some of the most serious of those were IntelliSense bugs, resulting in a crash simply from using no features other than typing.

This product should be considered BETA, due to all the bugs.

Visual C++ .NET 2003 7.1 (View Changelist)

This version certainly had drawbacks but it was one of the best IDE's Microsoft ever made. The last service pack for this version was SP1, and it should be installed to address the remaining bugs left over from 7.0. While it took time to get used to the 7.0 series IDE changes, it was solid enough that it didn't work against you allowing you to get real work done. I feel like the later versions of Visual Studio certainly had some great improvements, but the overall usability suffered to the point where you'd rather go back to something simpler (such as this version) than stick with an IDE trying to “be too smart” for its own good, constantly getting in the way.

PROS

All the benefits of 7.0, with the majority of those newly introduced bugs fixed. The IDE was finally stable and had enough welcoming features to justify its added complexity (because it was slower than 6.0) so you could get work done and almost never lose your work due to a random crash.

CONS

The worst thing that was fixed in later versions of the product was this Context Sensitive help (or Dynamic Help) feature. It would try to be helpful by constantly updating its window each time the cursor's position changed or with every keystroke typed, and none of what it displayed was “helpful”. It might have been useful if the cursor was positioned in an API name and the MSDN documentation for that API was automatically displayed, but instead you always got generic “unhelpful” stuff about Getting Started with Visual Studio, Code Samples and the like. The fact that was updating and “flickering” all the time was a constant distraction. Closing the window made the annoyance go away until the next time you needed to look up something in MSDN (hitting F1). MSDN appeared, but the Dynamic Help window would also come back, forcing you to have to close it again... and again... and again.

Visual C++ 2005 8.0 (View Changelist)

I've never used this version because I read too many reports of it being released too soon with too many bugs.

PROS

Settings are now stored in a .vssettings file and not the registry!

Visual C++ 2008 9.0 (View Changelist)

After installing SP1 (the lastest service pack), my opinion of this version is that while its got some really cool features and is totally usable, it has some annoyances that are so severe I wouldn't switch from the Visual Studio 7.1 IDE which thus far I feel is superior. Sadly, this is only due to a small handful of issues listed below.

PROS

The feature that grays out statements based on conditional preprocessor directives is the single-most important reason I'd use this version of Visual Studio. At a glance you can visually see which code the compiler is going to see based on your project settings and previous #define's. This is the only feature that you might have to wait a couple seconds for the IDE to “catch up” on after making a project alteration, but considering the large amount of parsing going on in the background, I consider that par for the course. E.g.:

#ifdef WIDE
#define BUILD_CHARSET "wide"
#else
#define BUILD_CHARSET "ansi"
#endif

Intellisense appeared to be flawless.

The IDE and dialogs are extremely clean and polished.

I had no complaints about the speed of the IDE performance.

CONS

Disassembly and memory debugging window colors are wrong upon debugging; regardless of what you set the colors to, the background reverts to the default blinding-white; as a workaround, perform the following when beginning your first debugging session after opening Visual Studio:
workaround: tools -> options -> colors -> OK
(colors are correct until Visual Studio is restarted)

“Find in Files” for specified paths doesn't search all files and directories. There are several different hacks on the internet, some involving undocumented key combinations, but none of these worked for me. I had no problems searching in either “Current Project” or “Entire Solution”. Specific paths however simply stopped searching before walking the entire directory tree. Sometimes when you were only searching a single directory with no subdirectories, it wouldn't search all files, and this was intermittent! Running multiple times with variations of extension masks produced slightly different results, but all of them failed to search every file. For this reason I don't trust any of the file searching capabilities of this version of Visual Studio.

IDE Editor tabs open up from left to right instead of right to left and there is no option to enable the standard behavior! I say standard because I have never seen any other application do this. Web browsers don't do this, at least by default, so why should an IDE do this just to be different? Opening tabs from left to right is natural as the English language goes from left to right; you naturally expect new stuff to be on the right. I think its great to have the option, and it sounds good in theory, just in case you want to always look to the leftmost tab for the most recent document; but its a serious oversight to prevent the old behavior. The tabbed environment was introduced in Visual Studio 7.0 (2002) and up to Visual Studio 9.0, tabs have opened from left to right. The relevant Microsoft meeting must have gone something like this: “Lets not only make the tabs open up on the opposite side of the IDE, but this is such a good idea, we shouldn't allow people to go back to the old behavior as they should embrace new technology and change.” I have to say that trying to do any serious work with this feature makes the IDE almost unusable. Adding insult to injury, even if you try to get used to the “new” tab behavior, tabs will shuffle themselves around between debugging and editing! Its like some mischievous gremlin playing tricks on you when your brain is focused on coding, constantly interrupting the "flow". The tab feature is flat out buggy and... wrong. Horribly wrong. Microsoft realized their mistake by Visual Studio 10 and users at least have the option to turn this mess off.

A static Win32 library linked with a Win32 application (same Solution) resulted in an approximately 40% larger executable than the same code and layout built under Visual C++ 7.1. It is true that between both versions, some compiler and linker switches changed. So I compared every switch between the two versions. Every switch in each version was either identical or the new equivalent option was chosen but the result was the same. I couldn't find a difference in the build settings, just that I got a bigger binary only with Visual C++ 9.0. Both versions used the MultiThreaded DLL version of the Standard Library.

After installation and updates, the first couple of times I ran a C++ project under the debugger, Visual Studio crashed after the debugged-application terminated. The problem hasn't resurfaced yet, but then again, I think switched back to 7.1.

Visual C++ 2010 10.0 (View Changelist)

This was the last version of Visual C++ to work on Windows XP is 10.0. Later versions require a minimum of Vista/Windows 7.

Although I liked the look of Visual Studio 9 better as opposed to the new "themed" look, this version has improvements over the shortcomings of the previous version. The Productivity Power Tools extension is a must have, for really cool features never previously available as well as to access some of the older functionality.

PROS

Document tabs can now open either on the left or right!

The broken "Find in Files" feature appears to have been fixed. I can't guarantee its bug-free, but sofar it seems to work properly.

Seems to be robust and stable. Although I had never tried the pre-SP1 version, the SP1 IDE has yet to crash on me!

Vertical scrollbar can now display as a visual map of the document with various code markers! (Requires Productivity Power Tools)

CONS

I get a pop up tray balloon-tip with each new start of Visual Studio sometime within the first 10 minutes (the timer seems to be counting when I'm actually working within the IDE). The popup title is "Improve Microsoft Visual Studio performance" and the text reads:

"Update the Windows Automation Support on this computer to make Microsoft Visual Studio run faster. Click for more details."

Its the typical Microsoft "Your life will be better if you install this update" sales-pitch and no obvious way to turn it off. I ignored this [XP-Only] error for quite some time before I finally caved and installed the automation update to shut the message up. However I wasn't surprised that it didn't make Visual Studio any faster.

No more support for raster fonts; this is so Visual Studio can implement things like squigglies underneath misspelled words and such. Therefore all fonts have a by-design pixel padding between lines making a font taller than normal and there is no way to adjust this setting (or turn it off). This wouldn't be a problem if Visual Studio changed this pixel padding color to reflect the current syntax hilighting background color. For example, I change the background color for my code comments. My multi-line comments that should look like one consistent block of a single background color is instead striped with tiny lines of the default background color. Luckily the Background Color Fix extension solves this problem. Unfortunately the extension gets in a weird state pretty easily and the background colors revert back to "stripes" in my comments.

Also in the realm of syntax-hilighting problems, Microsoft removed another long standing feature where the background color used to extend to the end of the line. Line comments as an example, easily delineated the code when the background filled the entire line. Again, the Background Color Fix extension solves this problem too. Unfortunately it doesn't work on empty lines within block comments and sometimes the extension stops working as described above for no apparent reason. The same file that the extension stopped displaying properly might mysteriously start working again in the same session.

I can't figure out how to change certain colors like the selection color to an absolute color value. Whatever I configure as this color, Visual Studio has some opacity setting somewhere that I can't find, which when combined with the configured color, gives me a different color than what I want. Opacity is great feature, especially for a text selection, but not being able to control the value is a hindrance.

I think document tabs looked better and more defined in Visual Studio 9, than these new uglier ones that are "busier". Actually, I think the tabs present in Visual Studio 7 were the best because of how plain and clean they were. This version of Visual Studio has a close-X on each tab instead of at the far right of the tab well. My biggest problem with this is that when I want to switch to a document and I click in the tab, but I click in the area a little too far on the right, I sometimes hit the large X button, closing the document instead of bring it into view. Does this X have to be so big? I might also add that this large X irritatingly fades into view only when the mouse hovers the tab itself. Thanks Microsoft for another irritating UI magic trick and for bloating tabs with no setting to enable the behavior of the previous Visual Studio versions. The Productivity Power Tools extension doesn't allow you to change the shape or remove the close X on the tabs, but it does allow you to enlarge them (to a minimum size) so there is more space to click in the left portion! The extension also offers coloring the tabs based on different projects which is pretty cool.

This version of Visual Studio automatically creates an empty VSMacros80 directory off of the default projects folder regardless of your macro project settings. This is actually a bug that was still present from Visual Studio 2005! The fix/hack to add a trailing backslash to your projects folder is described on Stack Overflow.

Each time I add a project that lives on a network share, Visual Studio warns me that the content is from untrusted location. I keep unchecking "Ask me about every project in this solution" and clicking "Yes", but I get the warnings anyway.