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Here's my problem

I have a C++ project which issues periodic iterations. These are release builds run by hand in MVSC2008.

On my dev machines, these release builds run fine but don't on machines which don't have the build environment installed (in this instance, its not a Side-by-Side error).

My question is how do I simulate a clients PC (a windows machine with no build environment), to test these builds? I rarely have access to a PC without MSVC installed!

Your learn-ed advice most welcome.

Si

sipickles
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    Visual studio popularized bipolar build systems (debug vs release), with absolutely no granularity. As a rule of thumb, you should have the exact same options for both (and the same runtime), include debug symbols for *both* (it doesn't hurt and is very handy), leave the asserts and checks in *both* (I assure you it is useful) and only change optimization settings. With whatever secure_scl_ iterators bullsh*t Ms builds into their STL, I often find I'm maintaining two different projects, so I try to make sure both modes yield the same program. Of course, the UI won't let you do that easily. – Alexandre C. Feb 04 '11 at 18:12

2 Answers2

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This is exactly what Virtual PC was made for.

Microsoft even offers free image downloads for testing: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=21eabb90-958f-4b64-b5f1-73d0a413c8ef&displaylang=en

Blindy
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  • Can I virtual PC support 3d graphics? That link is for internet explorer VMs. I used VirtualBox before, but that didnt support 3D back then, plus I needed a licensed OS to install. – sipickles Feb 04 '11 at 18:05
  • Doesn't matter that they're IE vm's, they come with fully installed, yet clean, operating systems, exactly what you want. About 3D, I'm not sure, but you could always give it a try, what's a 700mb download these days? – Blindy Feb 04 '11 at 18:09
  • After some more research it appears that neither VirtualPC nor VMWare (or most over virtual machines) support 3D acceleration. If that's a deal breaker for you, you might have to look into purchasing a second PC for testing. – Blindy Feb 04 '11 at 18:12
  • Oh hey apparently VirtualBox supports 3D acceleration: http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/07/virtualbox-3-brings-3d-graphics-support.ars – Blindy Feb 04 '11 at 18:13
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    Might have to go back to VirtualBox. Microsoft want £120 to upgrade from Win7 home premium to Win7 Pro. WTF? Alternatively I'll use my Win7 pro machine at work. Thanks all – sipickles Feb 04 '11 at 18:25
  • VMWare does have experimental support for 3D, but I haven't looked into it in depth. – Fred Nurk Feb 04 '11 at 18:34
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Deploy your software to clean system on virtual machine. I have installed Windows XP, Vista and 7 in clean state with undo drives, then when i test software i can undo disk changes and i have new clean system in 5 seconds.

Svisstack
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