However, Microsoft did something unusual starting with Visual Studio 2017. They decided to keep the (v140) as the final, stable target for a long time.
VC++ 2015 cannot link to libraries from VC++ 2013 or earlier due to different std::string layout, exception handling tables, and iterator debugging schemes. ms visual c++ 2015
The compiler could be invoked from the command line via cl.exe version 19.00 (internal versioning: 14.0 = VS 2015 toolset, but cl.exe reports 19.00). The compiler could be invoked from the command line via cl
This version signaled the end of the "Windows-only" mindset for Microsoft tools. Visual C++ 2015 introduced the ability to target Android and iOS. Critically, msvcp140
Critically, msvcp140.dll provides the C++ Standard Library implementation, which does change with compiler updates, but the UCRT remains constant. This allowed Microsoft to ship security fixes to the UCRT via Windows Update without breaking applications.
Microsoft provided /Zc:strictStrings- and /Zc:twoPhase- as temporary workarounds.