I'm trying to learn C++ and when I opened a new win32 console project it just gave me an empty project when it should have gave gave me like stdafx.h or the name.cpp file. Any way to fix this?
Did you try updating your workloads? After installing VS, if you didn't choose the right workloads to load certain types of projects such as Win32 console projects, go into your programs folder from the control panel and right click on Visual Studio. Choose 'change', not 'uninstall'. The page you are given is your workloads. Read them and decide which one supports that type of program. Check that workload, then in the right sidebar you will see custom options. Not all the ones you need may be automatically checked. Make sure any that refer to the build process are checked. Then click to proceed and VS will install the updates.
For Win32 programs, you need to add the workload called "Desktop development with C++" and then on the Installation Details pane on the right check all boxes that mention a "build".
Related
I'm creating a DLL using C++ in Visual Studio 2015. I started my project by following these instructions.
I need to add a reference to my project so I can make use of an API and, unlike C# DLL projects (for example), I'm unable to access the Browse tab when clicking on Project > Add Reference.
According to this page this is because:
The number of tabs available at the top of the Add Reference dialog
box can vary, depending on the type of project open and the resources
it is using. C++ native projects contain only a Projects tab.
Why is there this restriction and is there any way to get around it?
EDIT: I've just found a solution here but I'm new to Visual Studio and I'm not sure how to set 'the CLR option' and then remove after adding my reference. If anyone can explain how to do this I would be very grateful!
I'm a little late to the party, but I recently encountered a similar problem and have a fix that might help the OP or others in the future.
Problem Overview:
Open the Visual C++ project[1] in Visual Studio[2]. In the top toolbar, click on "Project > Add Reference..." . In the window that pops up, there is no "Browse" button/option (see image No Browse option).
Solution:
In the top toolbar, click on "Project > Properties"[3]. In the left navigation panel of the window that pops up, click on "Configuration Properties > General" (this will probably be selected by default). In the right panel, click on "Project Defaults > Common Language Runtime Support". The field value should read "No Common Language Runtime Support" (see image No /clr). Using the drop-down menu in the Common Language Runtime Support field (the grey down-arrow box), select "Command Language Runtime Support (/clr)". Apply the change. The Property Page should now look like this. Click "OK" to close the Property Page. Now, when you go to add a reference, the window that shows up will have a "Browse..." button and look like this. If you want to subsequently remove CLR support[4], select the "No Common Language Runtime Support" option and apply the changes.
Notes:
[1] As you're probably aware, you can select from various project types when creating a new project in VS. I experimented with most of the Visual C++ project types included under the Visual C++ template. Since the problem -- lack of "Browse" option when adding references -- seems to be related to CLR support, you will encounter this problem in all Visual C++ project types that are not created as Visual C++ CLR projects. Thus, if you want avoid the problem from the get-go, consider creating a CLR project from the start.
[2] I was able to replicate the problem in Visual Studio 2015, 2017, and 2019; the same solution works for all versions.
[3] Before changing any Configuration Properties, use the Configuration drop-down list in the top-left of the Property Page to select which configuration you would like to change the properties for, e.g. Debug, Release, All.
[4] If you have added references after turning on CLR support, then turning off CLR support is dubious as suggested by #Cody Gray in the comments to the original question. I have not tried to build a project after doing something like this so I can't speak to the solution suggested here. My answer is just to tell you how to change the CLR support.
For C++ projects, you need to get all the projects into the same solution and then when you go to Add Reference you'll see the other projects listed. You then just check the box to 'add the reference'. Keep in mind that this will cause the import library of the DLL (or a static library for a non-DLL library project) to link against your target project. It will not add any include paths you might need to get to the import headers for your DLL.
DirectX Tool Kit has instructions for adding project-to-project references for a C++ project that you might find useful to read over. See here.
For some general background on C++ project-to-project references. See this Visual C++ Team blog post which was published when they were updated for Visual C++ 2010.
Is there any way or some unobvious workaround to make the Solution Explorer refresh automatically (in Show All Files mode) when there are changes to the project directory tree? Currently if I rebuild a project with different output settings (which would add some files and remove some others), no changes would get reflected in Solution Explorer until I manually click refresh button. Doesn't seem too convenient for a tool aimed at programming, i.e. automating repetitive tasks...
Update
A picture is worth a thousand words:
My relevant options # Tools > Options > Environment > Documents:
Let's assume that Release directory is empty and Show All Files mode enabled
Now, I build my Release config... Build succeeds, but no changes are visible in Solution Explorer:
Only after I hit refresh button manually can I see the results of build process:
So I'm basically asking if there are ways to make Solution Explorer update automatically when changes occur, not to make externally modified files auto-reload in VS editors.
#Sunny Moon - There is no option right now to automatically refresh the project tree if changes are introduced. You have to manually select the Refresh button in the command bar of Solution Explorer. I'm going to track this feedback along with other areas I've been collecting for Solution Explorer so thanks for sharing your frustration here.
Thanks!
Cathy
Visual Studio IDE Team
Just set check the “Auto-load changes, if saved” check box on VS2013 Option menu >> Environment menu.
That was impossible in VS 2013 and 2015, but with 2017 Microsoft did the right thing and revamped the Solution Explorer a bit - now there is clear and logical separation between solution (virtual) and folder (physical) views, and changes to the filesystem are now tracked and displayed automatically.
I am using the basic VS project of Other Project Types\Setup and Deployment\Visual Studio Installer\ Setup Project.
I want to give the user the option of whether or not to create a desktop shortcut to the application. I know how to create a desktop shortcut, but not to make it optional. So far I have not made any custom dialogs for the install, just using the standard interface that VS provided automatically.
Is there any way to provide the user the choice without getting into a whole bunch of customization?
Are many people using this installer? I look around, we have a 5 year old license to InstallShield, but I have also found it to be bulky and more than we need for this application.
I also looked at WiX, but I don't have the time to learn an install package right now and it looks like a fair learning curve on it.
Basically our install has .NET 4.0 requirements, installs SQL Server CE, a couple other DLL's which are just copied in and populates a structure. I am not using the registry, using the preferred resources approach for that, so it is a very straightforward install.
There several ways to do it, in general… But I don't know the particular steps for Visual Studio installer project.
Create a feature which contains the Desktop shortcut. If you have feature selection tree in your installer, present this feature as yet anther option.
With another approach, you'll have to customize one of the existing dialogs or add a new one where you can show a checkbox. The checkbox changes the value of a property which, in its turn, controls the installation of component or feature for Desktop shortcut.
Yet I guess this method is not supported by Visual Studio.
See Microsoft UX guidelines on putting shortcuts on Desktop.
In most cases, it is not necessary to put a shortcut on Desktop unless your target users start your application very often.
The general approach is this:
create a custom dialog which contains a control that can condition the shortcut, for example a checkbox
create a custom action which deletes the shortcut after install
condition it with the checkbox property
This can be done in Visual Studio:
select your setup project in Solution Explorer
click User Interface Editor button on top pane in Solution Explorer
add a Checkboxes dialog under Install -> Start
customize it to contain only a checkbox that conditions your shortcut
add your shortcut deletion custom action in Custom Actions Editor page
condition it with the checkbox property
Some commercial setup authoring tools have this feature built-in.
As stated in the title, I copied my DLL in Visual Studio project, set it to "content" and "copy always". Added a reference to this DLL and set it to "copy locally".
I successfully managed to instance my component to a form through code but it doesn't appear in the toolbox, really boring.
How can I solve this issue?
If I link directly the DLL project to this project it works, but now I'm treating the DLL as "external" so it's not part of the same solution of the DLL project.
I had this problem with #AndrewFinnell's solution:
There are no components in 'c:....\XXXX.dll' that can be placed on the toolbox.
So I solved with drag and drop:
open Windows explorer and navigate to the DLL
drag the DLL and drop it on Visual Studio in the Toolbox, exactly where you want your components to appear.
I also realized that some components may have compatibility issues with certain .NET Framework versions. For instance A Professional Calendar/Agenda View That You Will Use seems not to work with .NET 4.5, while it does with .NET 4.
Right-click in the toolbox.
Click "Choose Items..."
Click "Browse..."
Navigate to your DLL and click Open
Then click "Ok"
Your components should then show up
The way I found to make this working is:
Add the dll, reference it
Compile the project
Save the solution and restart visual studio
And then controls show up in toolbox (not always working, I think is a sort of visual studio bug)
Like said above,
I reference the DLL in the client project by: in Solution Explorer right click > Add Reference, at this time the custom control doesn't appear in the Toolbox.
I save it and close the client project.
I restart Visual Studio 2012 and reopen the client project. Now the custom control is in the Toolbox.
I reopen the custom control project, make some modifications and compile.
And the most important, all changes that I made in the DLL project automatically were updated in the client project without need to redo "Add Reference".
Here is what I did.
After install the net 3.5 chart download from MSDN link, I manually copied the 3.5 chart dlls to my project and refer to them. Then, from the "choose item" of toolbox, browse to the dlls and add them into toolbox. Make sure the checkbox is checked for the "chart" in the "choose item" popup.
After these, the "chart" item in the toolbox should be available and enabled for .NET 3.5 project.
NOTE
(I am using Visual Studio 2010. I think my solution should work for 2012.)
I was having this same issue. I am working in Visual Studio 2010.
My user control library is written in C# and my project I'am importing it into is in Visual Basic.
If I had the C# project in my solution, the custom user controls would show up automatically. But if I only referenced the DLL it would not load the custom user controls from the referenced library into the "Toolbox".
The above post that mentions finding the file in explorer and dragging and dropping it into the toolbox solved the problem. This is a very strange way of behaving. VB user control libraries don't require this step.
This has been an issue I have had sitting on the burner for the last 2 years.
I would up-vote the previous answer but I don't have enough rep yet.
This post could use some better tags, cause it was buried on most of my google searches.
So
Reference the user control library
Drop the DLL file into the tool box.
One question I have in regards to this is: what happens if you change the project reference to the DLL (because it moved) and not attempt to update the toolbox reference (by removing the control from the toolbox and dragging and dropping the DLL from the new location)?
I tried following the other answers (thanks to all of you!), but I got this problem and I'll let you all know how I solved it and show my custom tools in toolbar (in VS 2017).
Place the .ddl file in any Library Solution
Then I add that .ddl as reference to my needed project
Build the project and restart the Visual Studio
Then, when I look into toolbox, my custom toolbox name appears in
toolbar, when I expand that I got below message
There are no Usable controls in this group. Drag an item onto this
text to add in to toolbok
I dragged the .dll and dropped under that text and then all my custom tools appeared in my toolbox.
And add lib. to folder in your solution example solutionfolder/bin/debug and then add reference to object from this folder, finally rebuild, quit, come back, drag and drop dll from this solutionfolder/.../../ and it will probably appear.
I am new to visual studio and I am experimenting around with some Windows Services. I have created two solutions and I would like to view both of them at once. Without having to click file->recent projects to switch back and forth.
Ideally this could take place in the solution explorer and just nest the projects, but I am only able to view one solution/project at a time there.
Is there anyway to view multiple solutions/projects in Visual Studio?
This is the way Visual Studio is designed: One solution, one Visual Studio (VS) instance.
Besides switching between solutions in one VS instance, you can also open another VS instance and open your other solution with that one. Next to solutions there are as you said "projects". You can have multiple projects within one solution and therefore view many projects at the same time.
There's a much easier (but not so obvious) way; right click on the Visual Studio icon in the taskbar, then right click on the application name in the popup menu, then click "Open". Windows will then open another instance where you can open another solution in.
If you have two separate solutions, then you cannot view them simultaneously in the same VS instance. However, you can open multiple instances of VS and tab between them.
An alternative would be to import the projects from one solution into the other, thus putting all of your projects into one solution. You can do this by following these steps:
In the Solution Explorer, select the Solution into which you want to import a project. Right-click, and select Add->Existing Project from the context menu.
In the file chooser, find the project file that you want to import (it will end in .XXproj where XX is the language you're using).
Click Open and voila! Your project is imported.
There is a way to store multiple solutions in one instance of VS.
Attempt the following steps:
File > Open > Project/Solution
This will bring up the open project window, notice at the bottom where it says options, select add to solution
Then select the file you want to add and click open
This will then add the solution to your project. You still won't be able to run the same project in a single instance of VS, but you can have all your code organized in one place.
NOTE:
This worked for Visual Studio 2013 Professional
Just right click on the Visual Studio icon and then select "New Window" from the contextual toolbar that appears on the bottom in Windows 8. A new instance of Visual Studio will launch and then you can open your second project.
You can create a new blank solution and add your different projects to it.
You can have multiple projects in one instance of Visual Studio. The point of a VS solution is to bring together all the projects you want to work with in one place, so you can't have multiple solutions in one instance. You'd have to open each solution separately.
Don't know whether this is useful but if you want to work with multiple projects without navigating through projects tree {like multi window} you can try opening VS in another virtual desktop (at least it's possible for Windows 10) by holding Ctrl+win+D. Then open another VS studio and open your other project there. You can switch between projects by Ctrl+win+arrow key {left/right}.
Two ways come to mind...
Open another visual studio window and open the second solution in it.
It would be preferable to add your existing projects to one solution, just right click and add existing project and navigate to the project file(csproj). .... e.g. C:\Users\User\Documents\Visual Studio 2012\Projects\MySqlWindowsFormsApplication1\MySql Windows Forms Project1\MySql Windows Forms Project1.csproj ....In this second way you might want to setup multiple start up projects i.e. for people with client-server apps or apps with dependencies. ....To do this Select the solution then GoTo: Project>>Properties>>Startup Project>> Select Multiple Startup projects and set actions to Start. When you debug, the selected as start will run.
For interest sake you could open another multiple solution windows to view different projects at the same time. http://www.schwammysays.net/visual-studio-2012-tip-multiple-solution-explorers/
After a long research and different experiments the easiest way "FOR MAC USERS" is to create a script:
open -a "Visual Studio" \
"path to first sln" \
"path to second sln" \
...
:D
File -> New Window. Select the other project in that window. Each project lives in a separate window. You can tab between them.
MAC users - this issue was winding me up, as its not possible to open two different Visual Studio instances at the same time. Ive found a solution that works fine, though its a little unorthodox : get the latest beta testing version, which will install alongside your normal VS install in a separate sandbox (it does this automatically). You can then run both versions side by side, which is enough for what I needed - to be able to examine one project for structure, code etc., while doing the actual coding I need to do in the 'current' VS install instance.