Internal Manifest vs External Manifest

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Internal manifest is the RT_MANIFEST resource in the executable.

External manifest is App.exe.manifest.

In Windows XP, Sxs searches external manifest before internal manifest. If an external manifest is found, the internal manifest is ignored.

 In Windows Server 2003 and later, the order is reversed. Internal manifest is preferred over external manifest.

If you use external manifest, and your scenario works in Windows XP, but not Windows Server 2003 and later, please double check the executable does not have an internal manifest