As we’re aiming to update the core OpenEngine code to be a cross-platform solution we spent some of last week moving the OpenInsight 10 C++ codebase from Visual Studio 2010 to Visual Studio 2015, to take advantage of better C++ standards support and the improved tools, such as the excellent C++ static code analyzer.

All in all it was a fairly smooth process, apart from a “hidden” default compiler setting that managed to temporarily break the High DPI and scaling code, but that sort of thing is expected when moving versions, so after a fair bit of Google-Fu we found the issue and fixed it.  One big difference we did find however, is how Microsoft have changed the way their C-runtime libraries are distributed, and it’s something of a departure from previous versions.

As you may or may not be aware, programs built with Visual C++ rely on a set of core DLLs, usually known as the “VC++ Redistributable” and this can be deployed in one of two ways:

  1. The DLLs can be included in the application directory – this is the “App-folder” method,
  2. The DLLs can be installed into the system directories via a “VC++ Redistributable” setup program, which is basically another client-install program.

In order to save you the extra pain associated with yet another client-install  we opted to use the App-Folder method for OpenInsight 10, as originally this meant we supplied you with just two extra DLLs.  However, for Visual Studio 2015 Microsoft have decided to do some refactoring to share their C-runtime code between Desktop apps and the new Universal Platform apps, and so at first glance it looked we needed to supply four DLLs instead, these being:

  • concrt140.dll
  • msvcp140.dll
  • vccorlib140.dll
  • vcruntime140.dll

But unfortunately this was not the end of the story, as early testing on some machines showed that there were still some required DLLs missing.  As it turns out these four DLLs rely on afurther set of DLLs that Microsoft say are now “part of the operating system”, and although we could supply these too there are actually 41 of them!  Needless to say we won’t be cluttering up your OpenInsight folders with these.

On further investigation it appears that Microsoft are indeed releasing this 41-DLL set through Windows Update, but only as an Optional Update, so its quite possible that systems will not have these installed and this is something to bear in mind (The update in question isKB2999226).

So, when deploying OpenInsight 10 you have the choice of:

  1. Ensuring KB2999226 is installed on the workstation, or
  2. Using the “Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015” setup package instead.

At the moment we are going with option (1), but this post is basically a “heads-up” to make you aware of the choices.

(Disclaimer: This article is based on preliminary information and may be subject to change in the final release version of OpenInsight 10).