   Visual Studio 2007, C++ Compilation.
  My application builds and exectutes fine from inside the IDE, but I would like to produce a "published" executable.I thought I could just go into the debug directory and grab the exe but the program just crashes (even though it builds and runs from inside the IDE).   
  As it turns out I forgot that I was loading external files into the application. So as soon as thoes were in the same relative directory as the exe things went back to normal :D.So this thread doesnt go to waste, I was wondering what the "proper" way is to produce a release build.   ;  Also you will want to know about some compatability with your code you produce from 20003. if you do provide 3rd party library files to other people, or clients who have visual studio 6.0 you will have to recompile you application in visual studio 6.0 for them. The reason for this is the new lib files produced from visual studio 2003 add extra meta data into the lib files. So when your client or friend goes to  link your code from 2003 into visual c++ 6.0 it will come up with a linking error.   