| Limitation | Impact then | Impact now (2020s) | |------------|-------------|--------------------| | Poor C++98 compliance (no export templates, broken two-phase lookup) | Annoying for portable code | Fatal for modern C++11/14/17 | | No C++11 features (nullptr, auto, rvalue refs, lambdas) | Acceptable in 2007 | Code cannot use modern standards | | 32-bit toolchain default | Limited memory addressing | Hinders large datasets | | No official Clang integration | No alternatives | Can’t leverage modern static analysis | | 64-bit toolchain only in Professional+ | Cost barrier | Not relevant (discontinued) |

: x86 (32-bit), x64 (AMD64), IA-64 (Itanium – limited support).

Visual C++ 2008 introduced several advancements to improve developer productivity and application performance: Do I Need All These Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributables?