New requirements on PE executables in Windows 8

[larsbrinkhoff]

FYI.

I have software to generate a simple PE executable that works fine in Windows XP/Vista/7. However, it doesn't work in Windows 8 or 10. The original version left out the data directories.

I updated the software to include 16 data directory entries. This made the executable run in Windows 8 and 10.

Samples:
https://github.com/larsbrinkhoff/temp/blob/master/tmp.exe
https://github.com/larsbrinkhoff/temp/blob/master/tmp2.exe

[larsbrinkhoff]

Another problem. I added some imports, which work in Windows 7. But the exe crashes in Windows 8.

[larsbrinkhoff]

Windows 8 requires the imports to be inside a section.

Also Windows 8 didn't accept that the number of data directories is 2. According to Peter Ferrie, Windows 8 needs at least 13 data directories.