Visual Studio 2010 generated executable size larger

Question

I've got an C++ application originally written with Visual Studio 6.0

The application is standard and raw Win32 API, no MFC(*Edit 2), no .NET, statically linked, multi-threaded executable.

I have migrated through all versions of Visual Studio up to 2010 (today) and never had any problems until now:

It compiles and runs perfectly with VS2010 BUT the generated executable size is four (4) times larger!

I've tried all the options I know (optimizations, remove debug info, etc..) with no results. Granted, I am new to VS2010, but not to Visual Studio.

Has anyone encountered this problem? Again: I am NOT using any frameworks, it is a raw, statically linked, Win32 application, no DLLs, no ODBC, no network, no .NET

Hoping to see my executables small once again, I thank you for any input.

• Edit 1: Original Size=626KB (VS6.0, VS2008) Bloated size=2.013KB (VS2010)

• Edit 2: After some research and dumps, I discovered a hidden reference to MFC. Originally I said it did NOT use MFC, but it does.

Answer 1

The increase in size may be caused by changes to the MFC. Here is an explanation, and here is a workaround by the same author that brings the executable's size back down into regions where it was with 2008. The workaround involves editing copies of MFC source files, though, a process not everybody may be happy with, and which needs to be repeated after every update, e.g. after installing a Visual Studio service pack.

Update:

It looks like the OP does not use MFC, so these might be two different issues. I have experienced the size increase myself but unfortunately cannot say whether caused by MFC or not since my project statically links to the MFC.