Visual Studio issue...maybe?

A couple of years ago, I wrote my first few C++ programs with Dev-C++. My brother tested them out on his old Compaq, and they worked fine. At some point I upgraded to Visual C++ and ultimately to Visual Studio 2008. One thing I noticed was that the programs I compiled on Visual Studio do not work on his Gateway PC......when he tries to run the .exe file, he gets a "Cannot run application because side by side configuration is incorrect. See application log for details." Not sure if that is the exact text, but the side by side configuration and application log remarks I know he saw. I sent one of my old Dev-C++ .exe's to his Gateway and it worked fine. Any of the programs I compile on either of my computers (both are running Visual Studio) work fine on both computers.

What I do not understand is what that error message means or what we can do to deal with it. Any ideas?

I'm guessing it probably has to do with the way you've linked the final executable. In your Visual C++ configuration you've probably got it set up to do dynamic library linking instead of static linking so on your machine it works because the proper libraries have been installed (during the course of you installing Visual C++ itself) and the computer knows where they are. On your friends computer, he doesn't have these libraries and your executable that you've sent him can't find them. You basically need to create a completely stand-alone version of the executable... one that doesn't rely on something your friend might not have installed on his machine. You're friend might also be able to download/install the Visual C++ runtime libraries (that might work) or Visual C++ to get the executable working.

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One of the things you can check is in your project's properties (Alt+F7 or Project->Properties from the menu or right-click on the project in the solution explorer window and go to properties). In the left hand side of the window that pops up, expand "Configuration Properties"->"C/C++", then select/highlight "Code Generation". Then, on the right look for something that says "Runtime Library". The selection there probably needs to say either "Multi-threaded (/MT)" or "Multi-threaded Debug (/MTd)" and not "Multi-threaded Debug DLL (/MDd)" or "Multi-threaded DLL (/MD)". You don't want either of those DLL versions, you want the ones without the DLL reference in them. There might also be something under "Configuration Properties"->"Linker" that you need to check on but I can't remember right now. Try rebuilding the project after making those changes and then resending him the EXE and have him try to run it.
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Quote:

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Originally Posted by DarkMasterBosel

"Cannot run application because side by side configuration is incorrect. See application log for details."

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You're probably trying to use the debug version -- use a release version instead.

Can be due to one of the following reasons:
1) You are using a Debug build. See the drop-down menu at the top and select Release.
2) The target computer does not have the Visual C++ 2008 runtime installed. Install it (can be found on Microsofts homepage).