Programming Software for ReactOS (Windows 2003)...

[MugenFighter]

I know that since ReactOS is based on Windows 2003 some software programmed for Windows 10 may not work with it. How can one make software to work with both Windows 10 and ReactOS. I'm pretty good with Windows 10 programming, but I didn't start programming until Windows 7.

[hbelusca]

The answer seems pretty simple: make your program work for Windows 2003. That is, use the good old Win32 API; don't use desktop management API (DWM) nor Advanced theming API nor metro stuff; don't require too recent versions of DirectX (if you are doing game programming); don't rely on too recent versions of MS .NET. And don't do assumptions on the Windows platform you're running on. And be sure your compiler+linker correctly sets your application's PE header "Subsystem version" flag to something not higher than "5.1" (which is the Windows version for XP; or "5.2" for 2003).
I guess these measures should allow your program to work on WinXP/2003 (and optionally ReactOS). Of course a final real test on these platforms would be nice!

[MugenFighter]

The answer seems pretty simple: make your program work for Windows 2003. That is, use the good old Win32 API; don't use desktop management API (DWM) nor Advanced theming API nor metro stuff; don't require too recent versions of DirectX (if you are doing game programming); don't rely on too recent versions of MS .NET. And don't do assumptions on the Windows platform you're running on. And be sure your compiler+linker correctly sets your application's PE header "Subsystem version" flag to something not higher than "5.1" (which is the Windows version for XP; or "5.2" for 2003).
I guess these measures should allow your program to work on WinXP/2003 (and optionally ReactOS). Of course a final real test on these platforms would be nice!

Thanks!

[ROCKNROLLKID]

I am pretty sure ReactOS will eventually adopt the APIs for Windows 10 systems and win10 software, but probably not for awhile yet.

[hbelusca]

You're welcome! Of course I have supposed that you were programming either using direct Win32 API calls (similarly to our C/C++ applications in the ReactOS source code), or .NET. If you are using some high-level languages (I'm thinking about interpreted/bytecode-compiled languages such as .net, Java..., or other "new" languages I'm not really aware of) you may have to be more careful.

[hbelusca]

@ROCK&ROLLKID: maybe, but in a far faaaaaaaar future

[PurpleGurl]

I can see the 7 APIs as more likely.