Taking advantage of native multi-targeting is as simple as installing Visual Studio 2017 side-by-side with your older Visual Studio version, then opening your existing project in VS 2017.ĭuring project load, you will receive a prompt on whether you want to upgrade to the latest C++ toolset shipping with VS 2017. Say again? How does Native retargeting work? type information will be missing in the Memory Profiler, and the refactoring operation “Convert to Raw string literals” will generate C++11-compliant code, making it not compile with VS 2012 compilers and older. Disclaimer: there are IDE features that also depend on the latest toolset capabilities and they will be incompatible with older toolsets: e.g. Using these features means that you will be taking advantage of the latest IDE features in VS 2017 without also taking advantage of the latest advances in the C++ compiler, libraries and build tools (e.g. Round-tripping is the ability of the latest IDE to load projects created by a previous IDE version without making any changes to the project assets (VS 2010 projects and up), thus allowing it to load back in the previous IDE too. Native multi-targeting is the ability of the latest IDE to build using toolsets installed by previous versions of Visual Studio (VS 2008 and up). And we definitely want to shine more light on it: Well, it’s not really a secret that Visual Studio supports native multi-targeting and round-tripping. the current compiler and the matching target CRT). If these cover your reasons for not using VS 2017, I’m going to let you in on a little secret: you can start using Visual Studio 2017 today without having to change your toolset version (i.e. Are you exposing C++ APIs for other parties to consume, so you’re restricted to a specific version of the C++ compiler & CRT?.Are you relying on 3rd party libraries compiled with a specific version of the VC toolset?.Are you dependent on older (non-conformant) language constructs that would break if you move to a more recent compiler?.Are your binaries tied to an older version of CRT that for maintenance reasons you can’t upgrade?.
We know however that there are projects for which a full upgrade is not a trivial decision. You can download Visual Studio 2017 and upgrade your projects today.
New C++ refactoring capabilities and Predictive IntelliSense.
Enhanced “Find all References” and new “Go to” experiences for fast code navigation.New lightweight installation experience and git integration.There are many reasons why you may want to use Visual Studio 2017 in your day-to-day job. ⏱ Updated on Mawith the latest functionality in Visual Studio 2017Īre you currently developing your C++ projects in an older version of Visual Studio? If your reasons for avoiding the all-new features in VS 2017 are covered next, then read on: this post may have good news for you.