VS2012 C++ warning C4005: '__useHeader': macro redefinition

Question

While migrating an old C++ project from Visual Studio 6 up to Visual Studio 2012, we came across an odd set of warnings from inside the standard Microsoft platform headers:<

Answer 1

Haven't found a solution to this published anywhere online, so here's what worked for me.

I'm building a project with 110_xp tools

I get these warnings ...

c:\program files (x86)\microsoft sdks\windows\v7.1a\include\sal_supp.h(57): warning C4005: '__useHeader' : macro redefinition
          C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\VC\include\sal.h(2872) : see previous definition of '__useHeader'
c:\program files (x86)\microsoft sdks\windows\v7.1a\include\specstrings_supp.h(77): warning C4005: '__on_failure' : macro redefinition
          C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\VC\include\sal.h(2882) : see previous definition of '__on_failure'

Clearly an inconsistency between the VC 11 headers and 7.1a sdk headers.

In my stdafx.cpp I did this ...

#define _USING_V110_SDK71_

#include "stdafx.h"

... the build problem has gone away.

Answer 2

I know this is old question, but... "sometimes they come back" :)

Faced same warnings after install VS 2012 Express at fresh OS. After some investigation i decided to compare my current Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\VC\include folder with the same folder with VS 2012 Update 4. Here is comparison result:

And sal.h diffs:

So simple copying __useHeader's checks fixed all warnings.

Answer 3

Adding #define _USING_V110_SDK71_ in Stdafx.cpp or Stdafx.h would not work if your cpp files do not have precompiled headers.

To solve this problem, the following works.

Right-click project in Solution Explorer* → Properties → C/C++ → Preprocessor → Preprocessor definition → edit → Add _USING_V110_SDK71_

Answer 4

UPDATE:

See Edmund's answer to this same question first -- give that a try. If it works, great! If not... try the following:

ORIGINAL:

Use the workaround mentioned on the "Workarounds" tab of this web page:

http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/789965/resource-editor-warning-rc4005-on-toolset-visual-studio-2012-windows-xp-v110-xp

Namely, add:

#define _USING_V110_SDK71_ 1

...directly in the .rc file before it includes anything that would include the system headers that cause this warning.

Answer 5

For me this happened with Visual Studio 2017 (both fresh and repaired installation). Obviously the Windows 7.1 SDK had been installed before VS2017 and had been integrated into a Visual Studio 2005 installation.

In my case the two files:

• %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\MSBuild\v4.0\Microsoft.Cpp.Win32.user.props
• %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\MSBuild\v4.0\Microsoft.Cpp.x64.user.props

contained references to the include directories and libraries of the Windows 7.1 SDK. Removing these references did the job.

Keep in mind that every single C++ project for Win32 and x64 respectively inherits from these property sheets.