Where to download windows xp platform SDK?

Question

I want to compile a code that I have from long time ago using VS express 2005. The code needs windows.h which is not part of VS 2005 and I found that I need to install platform SDK. But I cannot find platform SDK for windows XP. Where can I download this platform SDK? Where can I find windows.h?

Answer 1

Just in case someone actually needs an old SDK, here's one from Feb 2003:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/platformsdk/sdk/update/win98mexp/en-us/3790.0/FULL/PSDK-FULL.1.cab
http://download.microsoft.com/download/platformsdk/sdk/update/win98mexp/en-us/3790.0/FULL/PSDK-FULL.2.cab 
http://download.microsoft.com/download/platformsdk/sdk/update/win98mexp/en-us/3790.0/FULL/PSDK-FULL.3.cab    
http://download.microsoft.com/download/platformsdk/sdk/update/win98mexp/en-us/3790.0/FULL/PSDK-FULL.4.cab    
http://download.microsoft.com/download/platformsdk/sdk/update/win98mexp/en-us/3790.0/FULL/PSDK-FULL.5.cab    
http://download.microsoft.com/download/platformsdk/sdk/update/win98mexp/en-us/3790.0/FULL/PSDK-FULL.6.cab    
http://download.microsoft.com/download/platformsdk/sdk/update/win98mexp/en-us/3790.0/FULL/PSDK-FULL.7.cab    
http://download.microsoft.com/download/platformsdk/sdk/update/win98mexp/en-us/3790.0/FULL/PSDK-FULL.8.cab    
http://download.microsoft.com/download/platformsdk/sdk/update/win98mexp/en-us/3790.0/FULL/PSDK-FULL.9.cab    
http://download.microsoft.com/download/platformsdk/sdk/update/win98mexp/en-us/3790.0/FULL/PSDK-FULL.10.cab    
http://download.microsoft.com/download/platformsdk/sdk/update/win98mexp/en-us/3790.0/FULL/PSDK-FULL.11.cab    
http://download.microsoft.com/download/platformsdk/sdk/update/win98mexp/en-us/3790.0/FULL/PSDK-FULL.12.cab    
http://download.microsoft.com/download/platformsdk/sdk/update/win98mexp/en-us/3790.0/FULL/PSDK-FULL.13.cab    
http://download.microsoft.com/download/platformsdk/sdk/update/win98mexp/en-us/3790.0/FULL/PSDK-FULL.bat    
http://download.microsoft.com/download/platformsdk/sdk/update/win98mexp/en-us/3790.0/FULL/extract.exe

Answer 2

You don't need to find the SDK for Windows XP. Each release of the Windows SDK targets the latest version of Windows, as well as several previous versions. You should always install the latest version of the SDK unless you are targeting an extremely old version of the OS. At this point, Windows XP doesn't quite count (yet).

All you need to do is make sure that you set the appropriate target version when compiling your project. To target Windows XP, you should simply define WINVER to version 0x0501, like so:

#define WINVER 0x0501

You can find more information about targeting specific versions of Windows using the headers here.

And you can download the latest SDK here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/bb980924