Menu:
Updates, notes and other resources for vintage development tools, mostly limited to tools I actually have (licensed) copies of.
| Version | Service Pack | Date | Notes |
| Visual Studio 97 | Service Pack 3 | November 1997 | notes |
| Visual Studio 6 | Service Pack 6 | March 2004 | SP5 may be required before installing SP6. See notes for more info. |
| Visual Studio .NET 2002 | Service Pack 1 | May 2005 | notes: Last version to support Windows NT 4.0. |
| Visual Studio .NET 2003 | Service Pack 1 | September 2006 | notes. |
The following SDKs were made available from the software library for public download:
The first version of Visual C++, this is for DOS and 16-bit Windows. The following files were provided for public download from the software library:
Label on the top of box says "VISUAL C++/NT 1.00", a badge on the front says "32-bit edition" and the back of the box says "Version 1.0" as does the license card. Part number of the copy I have is "0693 Part No. 52166" suggesting a mid-93 release date. The IDE calls itself Visual C++ 1.10 in the About box which is odd. This is the first 32bit version of Visual C++ and cl.exe calls itself Microsoft (R) 32-bit C/C++ Optimizing Compiler Version 8.00. It appears to be fairly rare - probably because Windows NT 3.1 wasn't a very popular operating system. Only patch I've been able to find so far is the one below - possibly there are no others:
This is the only 32-bit version of Visual C++ to support running on Windows NT 3.1. Version 2.0 needs at least NT 3.50.
The Microsoft Win32 Software Development Kit Final Release Version 3.1 (0693 Part No. 53348) appears to have been released at the same time as Visual C++ 1.0 32-bit edition. It includes a full copy of Windows NT 3.1 on the CD along with the command line version of the C/C++ compiler in both 386 and MIPS flavours but no IDE. It also includes the Win32s 1.1 SDK as well as headers and libraries for targeting the POSIX environment subsystem. It was available for the Alpha as well but you had to mail order it and pay for shipping & handling so is likely very rare.
| Compiler Version | cl.exe Date | Banner |
| Visual C++ 1.0 32-bit Edition | 1993-07-20 | Microsoft (R) 32-bit C/C++ Optimizing Compiler Version 8.00 |
| Win32 SDK Final Release v3.1 | 1993-07-24 | Microsoft (R) 32-bit C/C++ Optimizing Compiler Version 8.00.3190a |
The readme file states: The compiler, Microsoft Foundation Classes, and run-time library components provided in Visual C++ for Windows NT are more current than like components in the final installment of the Windows NT SDK. It is recommended that you set your path to use Visual C++ components when working with either Visual C++ or the SDK.
Pictures: Box, Contents, Icons
Originally released in December 1993 this is the last compiler from Microsoft that can target DOS and 16bit Windows. There were four updates - 1.51, 1.52, 1.52b and 1.52c. These were only available through subscription (MSDN) or packaged with newer 32-bit versions of Visual C++ 2.0 and 4.0. These updated versions were never made publicly available for download. Only one patch is available from the Microsoft Software Library which likely only applies to the original 1.5 release (not 1.51 or 1.52):
Visual C++ 2.0 received two updates - 2.1 and 2.2. These were only available through subscription (MSDN) and were never made publicly available for download. There were a number of small patches available from the software library however (oldest first):
Visual C++ 2.0 was also available in a RISC edition supporting MIPS and Alpha processors, and a Cross Development Edition supporting the 68k Macintosh.
Visual C++ 4.0 received two updates - 4.1 and 4.2. These were only available through subscription (MSDN) and were never made publicly available for download. The following were available from the software library however:
Visual C++ 4.0 was also available in RISC editions for MIPS, Alpha and PowerPC processors, and a Cross Development Edition supporting the 68k and PowerPC Macintosh. Visual C++ Cross-Development Edition for Macintosh v4.0 was the final version of this product.
The following from the software library apply the RISC Edition for Alpha Processors:
Service Pack 3 (full) includes updates for:
Service Pack 3 also existed for the Alpha (RISC) versions of Visual C++ 5.0 and Visual BASIC 5.0 but these appear to not have been archived anywhere.
Service Pack 6 is the most recent update for Visual C++ 6.0, Visual Basic 6.0 and Visual Source Safe 6.0. The final update for Visual InterDev 6.0, Visual FoxPro 6.0 and Visual J++ 6.0 is Service Pack 5.
In addition to this, there is also the Visual C++ 6 Processor Pack which adds support for AMD 3DNow! and new instructions introduced in the Pentium III and Pentium 4 CPUs including SSE and SSE2. This is only compatible with Service Packs 4 and 5 and can not be uninstalled. If you need these instructions and Visual C++ 6.0 SP5 is not good enough you've got to switch to Visual Studio 2002 or 2003.
Visual C++ 6 and Visual BASIC 6 also supported the Alpha processor. There were probably updates for these too but I've not found them archived anywhere.
The final Platform SDK compatbile with Visual C++ is apparently the Windows 2003 SDK, February 2003, available from here. Consult the README file for installation instructions.
The first version of Microsofts development tools supporting the .net framework. It was replaced a little over a year later with Visual Studio .NET 2003 and only got a single service pack, Service Pack 1, which was released in March 2005. Note that this service pack requires 200-300MB of free disk space on C drive. If you have less then it may complain or it may just crash with some non-obvious error message.
Minimum requirements are a 450MHz Pentium II or equivalent running Windows NT 4.0 (160M RAM for server, 64M RAM for workstation), Windows 2000 (192M RAM for Server, 96M RAM for Workstation) or Windows XP (160M RAM). This is the last version of Visual Studio to support Windows NT 4.0.
This was a minor update to Visual Studio .NET 2002 and was offered to existing users of Visual Studio .net 2002 for US$29. It received only a single service pack, Service Pack 1, which was released in September 2006.
Minimum requirements are a 450MHz Pentium II or equivalent running Windows 2000 SP3 (96M RAM for workstation, 192M RAM for server), Windows XP or Server 2003 (96M RAM for home, 160M RAM for other editions)
The commmand line compilers were distributed for free by Microsoft as the Visual C++ 2003 Toolkit: VCToolkitSetup.exe. This package only contains the compiler, linker and c-library. No nmake or other utilities and no Windows SDK. You should be able to grab all of this stuff from the Windows Server 2003 SP1 Platform SDK which seems to include everything except the compiler.
Versions of TurboC++ and TurboPascal released by borland for free can be found here. Patches for older Borland products can mostly be found on the FTP archives mirror of ftp.borland.com. In particular, the following locations may be of of specific interest but browsing around is probably worthwhile:
| Product | Location | Notes |
| TurboPascal Patches | ftp.borland.com/pascal/devsupport/patches/ | |
| General | ftp.borland.com/pascal/devsupport/general/ | Misc stuff |
There are three updates for Borland Delphi 4 available from here. Choose the correct edition and apply all three updates as they are not cumulative.
Files released by the OpenWatcom project up to 2016 can be found in the mirror of ftp.openwatcom.org should the original FTP server disappear. The last release by the OpenWatcom Project is version 1.9 released in May 2010. No further releases have been made in over 12 years now so this project is probably dead. Development of a fork, OpenWatcom V2, continues on github.
OpenWatcom also includes a compiler capable of targeting Windows NT on the Alpha processor. This is the only free compiler with that ability though it has bugs and isn't 100% fully functional. Some notes on how to build the compiler can be found here. There is some discussion about the Alpha compiler in this issue against the OpenWatcom V2 fork.
This table gives the Maximum compiler version you can use to target a particular verison of windows as well as the maximum version you can run on that version of windows (host). Note that this table is based on what Microsoft officially supported - with some effort it may be possible to target some windows versions with newer compilers than those listed. OpenWatcom 1.9 supports all of these as both a host and a target.
| Windows Version | As a Target | As a Host |
|---|---|---|
| Windows 3.1x | Visual C++ 1.52c | Visual C++ 1.52c |
| Windows 3.1x, Win32s | Visual C++ 4.0 | — |
| Windows 95 | Visual C++ 2003 | Visual C++ 6 |
| Windows 98/ME | Visual C++ 2005 | VIsual C++ 6 |
| Windows NT 3.1 | Visual C++ 2.0 | Visual C++ 1.0 (apparently 2.0 works unofficially) |
| Windows NT 3.5 | Visual C++ 2.0 | Visual C++ 2.0 |
| Windows NT 3.51 | Visual C++ 6.0 | Visual C++ 4.0 |
| Windows NT 4 | Visual C++ 2005 | Visual C++ 2002 |
| Windows 2000 | Visual C++ 2008 | Visual C++ 2005 |
| Windows XP | Visual C++ 2019 version 16.7 (file versions starting with 14.27) - redist | Visual C++ 2010 |
