-// define _WIN32_IE to a high value because we always check for the version
-// of installed DLLs at runtime anyway unless the user really doesn't want it
-#ifndef _WIN32_IE
- // for compilers that use w32api headers: w32api must be >= 1.1:
- #if (defined( __GNUWIN32__ ) || defined( __MINGW32__ ) || \
- defined( __CYGWIN__ ) || \
- (defined(__WATCOMC__) && __WATCOMC__ >= 1200) || \
- defined(__DIGITALMARS__)) && \
- !wxCHECK_W32API_VERSION(1,1)
- #define _WIN32_IE 0x300
- #else
- // highest known value at the time of this writing
- // (Internet Explorer 6)
- #define _WIN32_IE 0x600
+// this macro tells windows.h to not define min() and max() as macros: we need
+// this as otherwise they conflict with standard C++ functions
+#ifndef NOMINMAX
+ #define NOMINMAX
+#endif // NOMINMAX
+
+
+// before including windows.h, define version macros at (currently) maximal
+// values because we do all our checks at run-time anyhow
+#ifndef WINVER
+ // the only exception to the above is MSVC 6 which has a time bomb in its
+ // headers: they warn against using them with WINVER >= 0x0500 as they
+ // contain only part of the declarations and they're not always correct, so
+ // don't define WINVER for it at all as this allows everything to work as
+ // expected both with standard VC6 headers (which define WINVER as 0x0400
+ // by default) and headers from a newer SDK (which may define it as 0x0500)
+ #if !defined(__VISUALC__) || (__VISUALC__ >= 1300)
+ #define WINVER 0x0600