Can I find out if a WinAPI function is not available in Windows 2000?

Question

MSDN generally only lists Windows XP as "Minimum supported client", probably because Windows 2000 and older have reached the end of their lifecycle. However, some of our users are using our software on Windows 2000 machines, and I don't want to break this compatibility if I can avoid it. Can I find out if a Windows API function is not available in Windows 2000 (without testing each function on that system)?

Answer 1

MSDN usually mentions an older OS as well. See: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms724211%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

If it does not mention windows 2000, you must test it and there is a high probability of it not being available. You could use an older compiler (Visual Studio 6 for example) to see if the functionallity is available in its libraries. If it has the function, then Windows 2000 should also have it.

Answer 2

You can open your binary using Dependency Walker in Win 2000 system and it will show the missing functions in red. Provided, of course, that you link to them statically and perhaps this might be sufficient - at least it is simple, easy and efficient for starters.

Answer 3

In theory you could #define NTDDI_VERSION NTDDI_WIN2K and your program would fail to compile if it depended on newer APIs, but unfortunately this doesn't always work.

Answer 4

Unfortunatley, Microsoft have removed reference to anything earlier than XP from the "supported OS" lists in the latest MSDN. If you still have an old copy of MSDN (I have MSDN6a) then they will still list the true "supported clients" back to Windows 9x.

Answer 5

The help in the "Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2" has platform information going back to Windows 95 and Windows NT 3.1. I downloaded it recently but I can't find it on microsoft.com at the moment. I don't know if that's a temporary glitch or if it's gone for good.

The help in the Windows Server 2003 SP1 Platform SDK is probably similar but I haven't looked at it.