Microsoft C++ porting and upgrading guide

Transform your legacy C++ applications with confidence. Whether you're upgrading from Visual Studio 2008 or modernizing to take advantage of the latest C++ features, this comprehensive guide provides everything you need for a successful upgrade journey.

🚀 Quick start

Most projects upgrade seamlessly: For projects created in Visual Studio 2010-2017, simply open them in the latest Visual Studio. For Visual Studio 2008 or earlier projects, use our two-step upgrade process.

Binary compatibility: Visual Studio 2015, 2017, 2019, 2022, and 2026 build tools are binary-compatible, so you can upgrade without rebuilding library dependencies. Learn more.

CMake projects: For projects using open-source libraries or targeting multiple platforms, consider migrating to CMake. Learn more.

💡 Why upgrade?

• 🏃‍♂️ Better Performance: Faster execution and build times
• 🔒 Enhanced Security: Address sanitizers and security features
• 📐 Standards Compliance: Modern C++ features and conformance
• 🛠️ Better Tools: Advanced debugging and analysis capabilities

🎯 Choose your upgrade path

📋 Assess & plan

Evaluate your current codebase and plan your strategy

• 🔍 Overview of potential upgrade issues
• 🔗 C++ binary compatibility between versions
• 📜 Visual C++ change history 2003-2015
• ⚠️ Features deprecated in Visual Studio
• 🎯 Use native multi-targeting for old projects

🔧 Upgrade & modernize

Step-by-step guides and tools for upgrading

• ⬆️ Upgrading C++ Projects to Visual Studio 2026
• ⬆️ Upgrade projects from earlier versions
• 🛠️ IDE tools for upgrading C++ code
• 🔄 Upgrade to Universal CRT
• 🔧 Update WINVER and _WIN32_WINNT
• 🔗 Fix dependencies on library internals
• 📊 Floating-point migration issues

🌐 Platform migration

Move your applications to modern platforms

• 📱 Port to Universal Windows Platform
• 🔗 Use existing C++ code in UWP apps
• 🐧 Visual C++ for UNIX users
• 🪟 Running Linux programs on Windows
• 📦 Port third-party libraries

✨ Success stories & examples

Learn from real-world upgrade experiences

• 📖 Examples and case studies overview
• 📝 Case study: MFC Scribble upgrade
• 🕵️ Case study: COM Spy upgrade
• 🔍 Case study: Spy++ upgrade
• 🏗️ VCBuild vs. MSBuild migration

📚 Read more case studies

🛠️ Upgrade benefits

Performance & optimization

• Faster execution with improved compiler optimizations
• Reduced build times through compiler and linker improvements
• Better memory usage with modern runtime optimizations

Security & reliability

• Enhanced security with address sanitizers and guard checking
• Secure runtime libraries with improved CRT security features)
• Better error detection with static analysis tools

Developer experience

• Modern IDE features with IntelliSense improvements
• Advanced debugging with better visualizers and diagnostics
• Code analysis with Core Guidelines checkers and Clang-Tidy

Standards & compatibility

• Better C++ standards conformance with /permissive- mode
• Modern preprocessor for improved code conformance. Learn more
• Cross-platform support with CMake integration

🤔 Multitargeting vs. upgrading

Not ready for a full upgrade? You can still use the latest Visual Studio with older build tools and libraries:

• ✅ Modern static analysis tools including C++ Core Guidelines checkers and Clang-Tidy
• ✅ Automatic code formatting to improve legacy code readability
• ✅ Latest IDE features while maintaining compatibility

Learn about native multi-targeting →

🚀 Ready to start?

1. 📊 Assess your current project with our upgrade issues overview
2. 🔄 Follow our step-by-step guide to upgrade from earlier versions
3. 🛠️ Use our IDE tools to streamline the upgrade process
4. 📖 Learn from others with our real-world case studies

Questions? Join the conversation in Microsoft Learn Q&A or check out the C++ Team Blog for the latest updates.

See also

C++ in Visual Studio
What's new for the C++ compiler in Visual Studio
C++ conformance improvements in Visual Studio