To fix on a per project or per file basis add

To fix for all projects
either

Ensure that the project is selected (from Solution Explorer or Property Manager) then
Project → Properties → Configuration Properties → C/C++ → Preprocessor
add

to Preprocessor Definitions

add
<Tool Name="VCCLCompilerTool" PreprocessorDefinitions="_CRT_SECURE_NO_DEPRECATE"/>
to Visual Studio 8\VC\VCProjectDefaults\corewin_express.vsprops inside the VisualStudioPropertySheet tags. (The CoreWin.vsprops file should be Read-Only, so you may have to change its file properties before saving.)

Edit the appropriate resource file (usually projectname.h) removing the references to afxres.h.This will happen when trying to compile a VC++ Standard or Professional project with Express. Standard and Professional add a resource file which contains something like this:

// Microsoft Visual C++ generated resource script.
//
#include "resource.h"

#define APSTUDIO_READONLY_SYMBOLS
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//
// Generated from the TEXTINCLUDE 2 resource.
//
#include "afxres.h"

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
#undef APSTUDIO_READONLY_SYMBOLS

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// English (U.K.) resources

#if !defined(AFX_RESOURCE_DLL) || defined(AFX_TARG_ENG)
#ifdef _WIN32
LANGUAGE LANG_ENGLISH, SUBLANG_ENGLISH_UK
#pragma code_page(1252)
#endif //_WIN32

#ifdef APSTUDIO_INVOKED
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//
// TEXTINCLUDE
//

1 TEXTINCLUDE 
BEGIN
    "resource1.h\0"
END

2 TEXTINCLUDE 
BEGIN
    "#include ""afxres.h""\r\n"
    "\0"
END

3 TEXTINCLUDE 
BEGIN
    "\r\n"
    "\0"
END

#endif    // APSTUDIO_INVOKED

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//
// Icon
//

// Icon with lowest ID value placed first to ensure application icon
// remains consistent on all systems.
IDI_ICON1               ICON                    "icon1.ico"
#endif    // English (U.K.) resources
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

#ifndef APSTUDIO_INVOKED
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//
// Generated from the TEXTINCLUDE 3 resource.
//

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
#endif    // not APSTUDIO_INVOKED

most of which isn’t needed. The preceding can be replaced with:

#include "resource.h"
IDI_ICON1               ICON                    "icon1.ico"

Even though there is no Resource Editor with Express afxres.h could easily have been included with Express to avoid this error when sharing projects between little and big brother, but we have to use yet another half-arsed workround instead.

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Use third party editor then include manually. While it’s a pain to find an editor, it’s not as difficult to add the files to a project as one might suppose, as this tutorial at winprog.org shows.

I think I read a comment in the MSDN forums that the resource editor may be included in future versions.

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Ensure that the project is selected (from Solution Explorer or Property Manager) then
Project → Properties → Configuration Properties → C/C++ → Code Generation → Runtime LibrarySet the /MT option.

At one point I thought I might have to port my app over to Dev-C++ or something but in the end, I changed this setting and the resulting exe ran on a WinME box, so this fix should be pretty much bullet-proof.There’s quite a lot of noise over on the MSDN forums, here, here, here or here for example, but this fix is surprisingly simple and straightforward, just well-hidden, although the exe balloons from ~80kB to ~260kB.

Let’s just consider this for a minute, select “release build” then click build and you get an exe you CAN’T release.

Hmmm… so once again… set the release build option… y’know so you can build an exe to give to OTHER people who probably won’t have any Visual Studio tools installed, click build and Express builds an exe… that y’know OTHER people on entirely DIFFERENT computers CAN’T USE!!!

So, no warnings, no instructions, no options, no indication that Express will not do what you’ve asked for, no indication of how to do it, nothing. Quick check in the dictionary for the definition of contempt… a-a-and… no, no mention of MicroSoft’s attitude towards their customers.

The truly staggering thing to me is that someone sat down and decided that this was a GOOD idea! Take a moment, if you will, and picture a conference room full of Redmond’s finest; slumped, slack jawed, vacant eyed and drooling, barely able to remember how to breathe when some genius pipes up “Programmers never really want to share their work with anyone else ever. So, when they ask for a release exe they don’t really want a release exe. So, we should cripple it and not tell then… hur, hur, hur.” before succumbing to an aneurysm as his synapses collapse under the strain of actually having a thought (no matter that it’s total pants). Several days later, half-starved and wild-eyed they finally remember how to exit the room (thank God the door wasn’t closed or they wouldn’t have made it out alive). Determined that their fellow shall not have died in vain they will implement his idea… er… whatever it was…

I must admit I’m particularly pissed off because I’ve been sending out copies of a simple demo app to show off my programming prowess and now I find that they probably won’t work on the target machines. So, MS have made me look more like a programming retard than a programming demi-god. Thanks a big fat hairy bunch guys… that plumbing job is starting to look mighty fine…

Moral: don’t trust those arrogant asses at MS…

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