Use a macro
#ifndef _MSC_VER
#define NOEXCEPT noexcept
#else
#define NOEXCEPT
#endif
And then define the function as
virtual const char* what() const NOEXCEPT override
You could also modify that to allow noexcept
on later versions of VS by checking the value of _MSC_VER
; for VS2012 the value is 1600.