[acqq]

If you want your application to run on Windows 2000, you can't. VS 2008 doesn't have "auto" etc but it can produce binaries which run on Windows 2000. The libraries for VS 2010 simply removed the code that allowed them to run on Windows 2000. I can imagine you'll ask "who uses Windows 2000," well, if home users don't, the companies still do.

[cheez]

I know which companies do. I chose not to support them for my software. There are enough other companies to make money without it.

[daemin]

You could do that, or based on what the author of the article was saying, you could just charge more for anyone that wanted Windows 2000 support.