I have to agree with this. Another boost configuration that disables all that Microsoft crap that slows down code for no good reason would be wonderful. I personally build Boost myself with this command (in a batch file): ..\bjam --build-type=complete --toolset=msvc-8.0 --without-mpi --prefix=R:/SDKs/boost/built_head --build-dir=R:/SDKs/boost/build_head define=_CRT_NONSTDC_NO_DEPRECATE define=_CRT_SECURE_NO_DEPRECATE define=_SECURE_SCL=0 define=_SCL_SECURE_NO_DEPRECATE define=_HAS_ITERATOR_DEBUGGING=0 install>..\build-HEAD.log I compile everything I ever get that even touches the STL with the above defines, else nice crashes abound. But for an example, a parser I made with Boost.Spirit took 5 minutes without the above defines, took 5 second with them (times are pretty accurate, it was a massive difference), that is how utterly crappy the STL implementation is in VS2k5 and higher without those.