Compiling Help - Visual Studio 2005 & 2017

Hi, I was working with a developer about potentially releasing a new version of Windows CE software but they told me that they get this error when they tried to compile it:

This
was 2 PC generations before.
I have visual Studio 2005 and 2017 pro installed (licensed full product) and I
get an error from both that they can't handle the project type .vcw. Any ideas?

It's an eVC project, not a Visual Studio project.

Thank you, I let them know. Is there a way to tell what eVC versión the project used? And then we can help them set up eVC?

What was the app released for? If it was CE .net it was eVC4, anything earlier, eVC3.

It was 2.0-2.11-3 plus so then that means eVC 3.
Are eVC 3 and 4 the same to setup or is one easier to set up than the other?
Obviously it’s ideal to target 2.0-3 but if evc4 for ce.net is easier for the developer to get running that’s better?

4 is easier as with 3 you have to install all the SDK's and manually install the HPC2000 SDK, but you can't compile for anything under 4...

Thank you! I’ll keep you posted

I got the following reply, is there a way to target our platforms with VS2005?:
I see. In the meantime, I found another project of type .vcp in the same directory,
which I could then import into Visual Studio 2005!

The supported platforms are PocketPC 2003 (ARMV4) and Smartphone 2003.
I can successfully compile and run it, and there is even an emulator starting!

You can definitely target CE5 in 2005, I think possible 4.2. So you can target PPC and WM from there. You'd have to entertain a serious amount of hacking about to get CE3 targeted in it - similar to get CE2.0 targeted in eVC3.

I mentioned I personally have

Windows CE 6.0 x86 ThinClient
Windows CE 4.2 ARMV4 H/PC
Windows CE 3.0 MIPS4000 H/PC
Windows CE 2.0 MIPS4000 H/PC
And I was asked

To be realistic should we just say eVC 3 + the HPC2000 and HPC Pro SDKs to focus on?
If CE2.0 is a pain to deal with, maybe we can suggest to the developer to do it this way?
I think they just want to import it once and not have to build through different versions ?
So we’d have them target
HPC Pro / HPC 2000 MIPS,SH3,SH4,ARM,x86.
Then we have maximized device compatibility and theoretically it should still work with CE.net and higher ?

So steps to relay would be:
Evc3 install
Hpc pro and Hpc 2000 sdks?

Targeting x86 is tricky in old VS / eVC releases.
eVC3 will let you target 2.11 and 3.0 - 2.0 with some hacking - https://www.hpcfactor.com/support/cesd/200223/compiling_for_windows_...
eVC4 will do 4.x and 5.0

Older CE exe's will run on newer CE, just less efficiently.