VS2012 project x86 target not running on 32 bit Windows XP

Question

I wrote a WPF application using VS2012 on windows 8 computer (x86) and I want it to run on Windows XP x86. When I try to run the program I get error "... is not a valid windows 32 application." I've tried change Platform target to x86 and Any CPU,But have the same error. How can I fix it?

Answer 1

Make sure you target .NET 4.0 (not 4.5). Also make sure both .NET 4.0 Runtime and Reliability Update 2 have been installed on your XP machine (it must be an XP SP3 machine).

Answer 2

For C/C++ projects you need to:

• Go to project Properties -> Configuration Properties -> General
• Change the Platform Toolset to Visual Studio 2012 - Windows XP (v110_xp)

You'll need at least VS2012 SP1 installed for that option to be available. Applications may need msvcrt110.dll .

For more details see: http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/linking-applications-using-visual-studio-2012-to-run-on-windows-xp