I have an ATL/WTL project developed using Visual Studio 2008 and up until now I have been statically linking with the CRT libraries, avoiding the need to ship them. However, I now need to consider using the dynamic libraries (DLL) instead - in order to reduce the size of the code and because I want to use the excellent crashrpt tool (which requires you dynamically link to the CRT.)
Now, MS supply both a stand-alone installer (vcredist_x86.exe) and an MSM package but this is no good for me for two reasons:
- I am not using an MSI based installer (I am using InnoSetup).
- My application installs on a limited user account and the vcredist_x86.exe installer will not work.
Therefore I want to ship the CRT DLLs and install then in my applications program folder. Now, this is something you can do as I found the following blog post by Martyn Lovell, the MSVC Libraries Development Lead that says:
However, if you want to install-applocal, you should make sure that your application has a manifest, and then copy the whole of this folder into your EXE directory:
X:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\redist\x86\Microsoft.VC80.CRT
and other folders if you use more than the CRT. Make sure you include the manifest.
Just want I am after - except I don't understand this part:
make sure that your application has a manifest
My question is - how do I create an application manifest that references the CRT DLLs I want to use? The only manifest information my projects currently use is the following (which ensures the app uses v6 of the Common Controls):
/manifestdependency:\"type='win32' name='Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls' version='6.0.0.0' processorArchitecture='x86' publicKeyToken='6595b64144ccf1df' language='*'\"
Can someone provide me with instructions on how to work the manifest magic using Visual Studio 2008? There is a Microsoft.VC90.CRT.manifest file in my Visual Studio VC\redist\x86\Microsoft.VC90.CRT folder - do I need to use this somehow?
Note: This is a similar - but different - question to this one.
