Microsoft Documentation Minimum supported client question (WM_NOTIFY)

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Microsoft Documentation Minimum supported client question (WM_NOTIFY)

NorthernSun 101

Good evening. I am looking to create a simple win32 application that can (also) run on Windows XP using Visual Studio 2015. Up till now I have just been assuming that WM_NOTIFY can be used for developing apps for Windows XP. But I just noticed that on the Microsoft Win32 documentation it says "Minimum supported client: Windows Vista [desktop apps only]". Does that mean that I cannot use WM_NOTIFY to receive for example TVN_SELCHANGED on Windows XP?

Microsoft documentation link: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/controls/wm-notify

RLWA32 49,641 Reputation points

2021-08-08T16:38:16.167+00:00

As @Castorix31 points out, the common controls are available in Windows XP. However, not every windows control uses WM_NOTIFY. The controls that are not among the common controls (e.g., button, edit, static, combobox, listbox, scrollbar) send notifications to their parent window using WM_COMMAND messages. The documentation for the individual controls indicates how their notification messages are sent.

If you plan on using VS2015 to target Windows XP be aware that the v140_xp toolset must be used and its documented minimum supported version of Windows XP is XPSP3. You will also need to properly define some macros in your project (NTDDI_VERSION, _WIN32_WINNT) to help avoid using functions that were introduced in Vista and later versions and that are not available in XP. For details about how to define these macros refer to using-the-windows-headers
NorthernSun 101 Reputation points

2021-08-08T19:43:47.853+00:00

Thanks for the reply. I forgot BN_CLICKED was sent by WM_COMMAND instead of a WM_NOTIFY. I have edited my question slightly accordingly. Also thanks for giving more details about which toolset to use and which macros to define.

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RLWA32 49,641 Reputation points

2021-08-08T16:38:16.167+00:00

As @Castorix31 points out, the common controls are available in Windows XP. However, not every windows control uses WM_NOTIFY. The controls that are not among the common controls (e.g., button, edit, static, combobox, listbox, scrollbar) send notifications to their parent window using WM_COMMAND messages. The documentation for the individual controls indicates how their notification messages are sent.

If you plan on using VS2015 to target Windows XP be aware that the v140_xp toolset must be used and its documented minimum supported version of Windows XP is XPSP3. You will also need to properly define some macros in your project (NTDDI_VERSION, _WIN32_WINNT) to help avoid using functions that were introduced in Vista and later versions and that are not available in XP. For details about how to define these macros refer to using-the-windows-headers
NorthernSun 101 Reputation points

2021-08-08T19:43:47.853+00:00

Thanks for the reply. I forgot BN_CLICKED was sent by WM_COMMAND instead of a WM_NOTIFY. I have edited my question slightly accordingly. Also thanks for giving more details about which toolset to use and which macros to define.

Answer 1

Castorix31 90,686

No, the doc is wrong

WM_NOTIFY works on XP (used a lot in Common Controls)

If I search in MSDN archives, there is even :

Minimum operating systems Windows NT 3.51, Windows 95

WM_NOTIFY Message

NorthernSun 101 Reputation points

2021-08-08T19:56:19.477+00:00

Thanks (again <3) for your reply Castorix. If the official online docs display wrong requirements, what would be a good source to find such information? Do you recommend using webarchive for this? I have also read that older Windows SDKs (7.0a being the last according to wikipedia) came with an offline documentation. I never looked into those offline documentations too much because the online docs were pretty informative already, but maybe I should give them a look to see if they are more accurate about minimum requirements and such.
Castorix31 90,686 Reputation points

2021-08-08T20:51:21.937+00:00

Usually, the online MSDN documentation is relevant
Otherwise, I use also the old PSDK help files (.CHM or .HXS format), like ShellCC.HXS or ShellCC.CHM for Common Controls
(I have an old SDK 6.0 installed, with help files in HXS format)
There are copies on Google, like PSDK

Answer 2

Viorel 122.6K

I think, it means that Windows XP is not a supported Operating System. (It is not the version of Windows that introduced this message).

But the support for Windows Vista has ended too, therefore the documentation seems obsolete.

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Microsoft Documentation Minimum supported client question (WM_NOTIFY)

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