title: visual studio 2012 win32 project targeting windows 2000
body: <p>I need to modify a very old project written some years ago in win32 that MUST run on windows 2000 server.</p>
  
  <p>Having recently upgraded my computer i moved to visual studio 2012 and hence my problems.</p>
  
  <p>Ihave read a lot of posts here, and i kinda got confused.</p>
  
  <p>first using platform toolsets i need to install vs2008 &amp; vs2010 right? this is unacceptable.</p>
  
  <p>second, some posts say that i need to overwrite the function DecodePointer/EncodePointer .</p>
  
  <p>third, just be using the defines </p>
  
  <pre><code>#ifndef WINVER
  #define WINVER 0x0501
  #endif
  
  #ifndef _WIN32_WINNT   // Specifies that the minimum required platform is Windows XP.
  #define _WIN32_WINNT 0x0501
  #endif
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>option 1 is not acceptable.
  which of the other 2 options work with vs2012???</p>
  
  <p>thanks to all.</p>