Targeting Windows XP using Build Tools 2015 without Visual Studio

Question

I installed Visual C++ Build Tools 2015 on my machine running Windows 7.

In Windows SDK 8.1 and 10 there is no Windows XP targeting platform support.

It was introduced in Windows SDK 7.1A, but I can't find the download for it. It is also included in Visual Studio 2012 Update 4, but I would rather not install Visual Studio for it.

Is there any way to target Windows XP ( v110_xp ) using only Build Tools 2015?

Answer 1

I think SDK 7.1 + Visual Studio 2010 were the last version to support XP without having to install an additional taget Windows SDK 7.1 . But it is tricky to install old versions of that SDK if you have installed more recent version of VS. Also VS2010 doesn't have complete support for the C++11 since it predates that.

Since SDK 8 the compilers are not included, and should be installed from VS Express and/or Community. See this if you want to compile C++11 code tagetting XP Configuring C++ 11 Programs for Windows XP . If I recall correctly the _xp taget was not included in the RTM version, and you should install the SP1.