synchronizing SDK with Windows 10 update and using WinRT with Standard C++

Question

I have started experimenting with C++/WinRT using Visual Studio 2017 Community Edition. I now have an environment in which I can build a debug version of a sample applicatio

Answer 1

The C++/WinRT projections are just C++ headers. By themselves, they have no particular runtime requirements beyond the Windows Runtime APIs you are consuming.

The real question is what APIs are you using in your application (either via C++/WinRT or using the C++/CX language extensions (a.k.a. /ZW)), and what value you have set as the WindowsTargetPlatformMinVersion value when you build your UWP app.

With WindowsTargetPlatformVersion set to the latest Windows 10 SDK (17134), you can set the minimum required OS version for your UWP app to 17134, 16299, 15063, 14393, 10586, or 10240. You'll need to test your application on that version and make sure you guard any use of newer APIs.

From a practical standpoint, you should not need to support 10240 which is why the default in Visual Studio for a new project is 10586. For consumer editions, 14393 is as old as you are ever likely to encounter in the real-world.