We got new computers at work and also updated from Windows 8 to Windows 10. On one machine I use Visual Studio 2005 to maintain an old project.
Since the update I have a problem that is very difficult for me to understand. The MFC-libraries, with which we deploy with our program so far, do not fit to the compiled program anymore. I get the typical error of a faulty side by side configuration. The MFC we have used so far seems to be too new now. So far we had version 8.0.50727.6195. This is the last version of the MFC 8.
We deploy the MFC files in the same folder as our application. The program starts again when we replace the MFC files with an the older version. It will work with version 8.0.50727.42. Our program will also work if we install the C++ redistributable at the customers computer. The redistributable may well be version 8.0.50727.6195. If we do it like this, it works fine for some reason.
We had a similar problem several years ago when we updated to Windows 8. There is a special update that was originally for Windows Vista. I also can't get the Visual Studio version on my new computer as I have it on my old computer. It is currently version 8.0.50727.42, identical to the MFC number. On my old computer I had the version 8.0.50727.867. But all the updates I installed in the past will not install on my new machine.
tldr; What I actually want to achieve: How do I get Visual Studio to use the latest version of MFC 8 for the compiled program. Not an older version. The latest version is definitely on the machine. I have already installed the C++ redistributable for it (several times).
Update
I found a way around the problem. Not very elegant but it seems to work. First, I don't embed the manifest file into the EXE anymore. Then I edit the manifest and change the version number to 8.0.50727.6195. On a newly installed computer, our program works again without problems. The question remains how to get Visual Studio 2005 to directly use this version of the MFC.