The Visual C++ 2005 linker contains the following new features:

• Modules (non-assembly MSIL output files) are now allowed as input to the linker. For more information, see .netmodule Files as Linker Input.

• /ALLOWISOLATION (Manifest Lookup) linker option has been added.

• /ASSEMBLYRESOURCE (Embed a Managed Resource) has been updated to now allow you to specify the name of the resource in the assembly, and to specify that the resource is private in the assembly.

• /CLRIMAGETYPE (Specify Type of CLR Image) linker option has been added.

• /CLRSUPPORTLASTERROR (Preserve Last Error Code for PInvoke Calls) linker option has been added.

• /CLRTHREADATTRIBUTE (Set CLR Thread Attribute) linker option has been added.

• /CLRUNMANAGEDCODECHECK (Add SupressUnmanagedCodeSecurityAttribute) linker option has been added.

• /ERRORREPORT (Report Internal Linker Errors) linker option has been added.

• /EXETYPE linker option has been removed. The linker no longer supports creating Windows 95 and Windows 98 device drivers. Use an appropriate DDK to create these device drivers. The EXETYPE keyword is no longer valid for module definition files.

• /FUNCTIONPADMIN (Create Hotpatchable Image) linker option has been added.

• /LTCG linker option is now supported on modules compiled with /clr. /LTCG has also been updated to support profile-guided optimizations. See /LTCG (Link-time Code Generation), Profile-Guided Optimizations, and /clr (Common Language Runtime Compilation) for more information.

• /MANIFEST (Create Side-by-Side Assembly Manifest) linker option has been added.

• /MANIFESTDEPENDENCY (Specify Manifest Dependencies) linker option has been added.

• /MANIFESTFILE (Name Manifest File) linker option has been added.

• /MAPINFO:LINES linker option has been removed.

• /NXCOMPAT (Compatible with Data Execution Prevention) linker option has been added.

• /PGD (Specify Database for Profile-Guided Optimizations) linker option has been added.

• /PROFILE (Performance Tools Profiler) linker option has been added.

• /SECTION (Specify Section Attributes) linker option now supports attribute negation and no longer supports the L or D (VxD-related) attributes.

• Unicode Support in the Compiler and Linker

• /VERBOSE (Print Progress Messages) linker option now also accepts ICF and REF.

• /VXD linker option has been removed. The linker no longer supports creating Windows 95 and Windows 98 device drivers. Use an appropriate DDK to create these device drivers. The VXD keyword is no longer valid for module definition files.

• /WS linker option has been removed. /WS was used to modify images targeted for Windows NT 4.0. IMAGECFG.exe -R filename can be used instead of /WS. IMAGECFG.exe can be found on the Windows NT 4.0 CD-ROM in SUPPORT\DEBUG\I386\IMAGECFG.EXE.

• /WX (Treat Linker Warnings as Errors) linker option is now documented.

Concepts