[Mono-dev] Can't run mono-3.12.X on Windows XP (Mono-devel-list Digest, Vol 120, Issue 4)

[Jo Shields]

On 09/04/15 18:48, Keedi Kim wrote:
> Hi, guys.
>
> I tried recent version of Mono (3.12.X) on Windows XP machine. I've
> installed Visual C++ 2013 (x86) redistributable, then installed Mono. But
> every mono related executables are failed to run. The error message was:
>
> "mono.exe is not a valid win32 application"
>
> I checked download page ( http://download.mono-project.com/archive/ ) and
> installed previous older version which is
> mono-3.2.3-gtksharp-2.12.11-win32-0.exe then all mono binaries are executed
> well. I wonder if the mono supports Windows XP. Are there extra works to
> use recent version of mono in XP machine?

Sooooooooo....... The short version is it doesn't work with 3.12+, which
are built with Visual Studio 2013.

I tried building with parameters to enable legacy XP support, and it
should *install* on XP now, with the 4.0.0 alpha release - but it will
fail to work, due to needing commands in kernel32.dll (one of the most
fundamental Windows components) which are only available in Vista or above.

XP stopped having any support whatsoever from Microsoft more than a year
ago, and is now a massive security risk for anyone running it - I don't
want to invest any more time than I already have on XP support, until
management tells me otherwise - at which point it's the runtime team's
problem to stop relying on basic kernel32.dll functionality.