I am making the leap and upgrading from Visual Studio 2005 Express Edition to Visual Studio 2008 Express Edition, but i am a bit confused with the SDKs. I have the Platform SDK for 2005, i put it in the VS install directory (C:\Program Files\Visual Studio 8\VC\Platform SDK) and i am thinking that i can just move it to somewhere else temporarily while i uninstall 2005 and install 2008, then move it back and hope everything still works. But i just installed 2008 on an XP VM at work to try it out and i found that it automatically installed the Windows SDK in the Program Files directory. Now, from my understanding (from googling), the Windows SDK is the latest version of the SDK which includes all the stuff that was in the Platform SDK as well as .NET stuff, and it also works on Vista and Win7. But i am developing on XP and will not be using .NET, so do i even need the Windows SDK? The SDK folder is over 100Mb but i am not sure if it includes everything (it took surprisingly little time to download and install) or if i still need all the stuff from the Platform SDK i already have. So basically my question is which of the three actions should i take: * Keep the Windows SDK and also put the Platform SDK where i had it in 2005 (In the VS install directory) * Use the Windows SDK only and get rid of the Platform SDK. i.e because the WinSDK superceeds it and contains everything the PSDK had * Uninstall the Windows SDK and use the Platform SDK only. WinSDK shows as a separate item in the installed programs list, but i'm not sure if uninstalling it will break VS2008. thanks

Unlike Visual C++ 2005 Express, Visual C++ 2008 Express includes the Windows SDK (which used to be called the Platform SDK). As such, it is already set up to use the Windows SDK; you shouldn't need to install or move anything. You can uninstall the Platform SDK too; if you check the library paths in the Visual Studio options (Tools, Options, Projects and Solutions, Visual C++ Directories) you'll see that isn't referenced by 2008.

Ok, so in other words i should do option 2 that i mentioned.

I was just a bit unsure because it looked like the Windows SDK was only a hundred and something Mb in size and i was sure that the Platform SDK was a lot bigger (maybe it included the source code (?)).
Also, since i will not be using .NET, does this mean that i will have a lot of wasted space since the WinSDK also includes .NET (whereas PSDK did not)?

Quote:Original post by XTAL256
Also, since i will not be using .NET, does this mean that i will have a lot of wasted space since the WinSDK also includes .NET (whereas PSDK did not)?

That's weird because, I think, there is a difference between the Platform SDK and Windows SDK. I think, Windows SDK includes all the dotnet stuff; whereas, the Platform SDK only contained the old Win32 programming libraries. So Windows SDK should be bigger, unless I'm wrong about this.

Quote:Original post by jwezorek

Quote:Original post by XTAL256
Also, since i will not be using .NET, does this mean that i will have a lot of wasted space since the WinSDK also includes .NET (whereas PSDK did not)?

That's weird because, I think, there is a difference between the Platform SDK and Windows SDK. I think, Windows SDK includes all the dotnet stuff; whereas, the Platform SDK only contained the old Win32 programming libraries. So Windows SDK should be bigger, unless I'm wrong about this.

No, your right. And that's exactly what i said, the WinSDK also includes .NET stuff (although i don't know what exactly) so it should be bigger than the PSDK.

Well, Visual Studio 2008 seems to be working ok anyway. I have managed to compile my project with it and everything is cool now :)