It seems that serialization by pointer doesn't work. Example demo_portable_archive doesn't link after changing "char c" to "A* c".
You'll need to be more explicit as to what the error message says, what the actual changes to the demo you did.
I changed the only "char c" in to "A* c", and deleted "xFF & std::rand()". In http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_43_0/libs/serialization/example/demo_portabl... msvc71 building demo_portable_archive.vcproj configuration "Debug runtime-static" says: demo_portable_archive.obj : error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol "public: static class boost::archive::detail::basic_serializer const * __cdecl boost::archive::detail::archive_serializer_map<class portable_binary_iarchive>::find(class boost::serialization::extended_type_info const &)" (?find@?$archive_serializer_map@Vportable_binary_iarchive@@@detail@archive@boost@@SAPBVbasic_serializer@234@ABVextended_type_info@serialization@4@@Z) referenced in function "public: static class boost::archive::detail::basic_pointer_iserializer const * __cdecl boost::archive::detail::load_pointer_type<class portable_binary_iarchive>::find(class boost::serialization::extended_type_info const &)" (?find@?$load_pointer_type@Vportable_binary_iarchive@@@detail@archive@boost@@SAPBVbasic_pointer_iserializer@234@ABVextended_type_info@serialization@4@@Z) It's the same with msvc80 and msvc90. Stepan