I have tried to switch to Visual Studio 2019 since it is now officially released, but I am having problems building a C++/CX based project.
I have not retargeted the project, but it is still configured to use the v141 platform toolset, i.e. Visual Studio 2017 Build Tools.
As far as I can tell, I have specifically installed the required build tools in Visual Studio 2019, which should be evident here:
Still, according to the project properties, Visual Studio 2017 Build Tools are not installed:
And when I build the project I get the following error:
1>C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Professional\MSBuild\Microsoft\VC\v160\Microsoft.CppBuild.targets(378,5): error MSB8020: The build tools for Visual Studio 2017 (Platform Toolset = 'v141') cannot be found. To build using the v141 build tools, please install Visual Studio 2017 build tools. Alternatively, you may upgrade to the current Visual Studio tools by selecting the Project menu or right-click the solution, and then selecting "Retarget solution".
Am I still missing some components in my installation, or is this a bug in Visual Studio 2019?
EDIT I should point out that I still have Visual Studio 2017 installed on the same computer as well.
I had a similar issue, but this is what I was missing.
You will find these options on the Workloads tab of the VS installer on the right under Installation details (i.e. not under Individual components).
It turns out that the (Windows Runtime Component) project was not properly set up. In the .vcxproj file the ApplicationTypeRevision element was missing, which is also "evident" (if you know what you are looking for...) from looking at the project properties above, where only the General configuration properties node is visible, and the Target Platform value is empty.
Inserting the following line in the .vcxproj file immediately following e.g. the WindowsTargetPlatformMinVersion element should do the trick:
<ApplicationTypeRevision>10.0</ApplicationTypeRevision>
Most likely, it was also necessary to add the C++ Universal Windows Platform Tools. The v142 version was made available when trying to create a new C++ Universal Windows Platform project. As far as I could tell, this component was not otherwise visible in the Visual Studio Installer? Once the v142 component was installed, the corresponding v141 component was also available for installation.
I had this same problem for Visual Studio 2017, even though V141 was explicitly shown as installed. It turned out the problem was that VCTargetsPath was set in System Environment Variables to "C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\V4.0\V140". Removing or unsetting this variable solved the issue.
I suspect this variable was set during an earlier install of Visual Studio 2015. Even after uninstalling all other Visual Studios the variable was never removed and the problem persisted.
I recently downloaded a project from GitHub which I need in my Visual Studio Solution. However the project was built with a different platform toolset: Visual Studio 2017 - Windows XP (v141_xp) (not installed). Compiling wouldn't work because the toolset required isn't installed.
Q: As I have Visual Studio 2017 with platform toolset (v141) can I tweak the project so that it will no longer ask for v141_xp toolset ?
I searched for a way to solve the problem(I really need that project), but the only suggestion so far is to create a new solution with my default toolset and import everything manually from the downloaded project(which is pretty big).
Do a rightclick on the project in Solution Explorer inside VS2017, open properties and change the Platform Toolset from v141_xp to v141
Using visual studio 2012 on windows 8 x64
aparantly this is caused by msbuild being moved into .net but I havn't seen how to fix it yet.
4>C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V110\Microsoft.Cpp.Platform.targets(44,5): error MSB8020: The builds tools for v120 (Platform Toolset = 'v120') cannot be found. To build using the v120 build tools, either click the Project menu or right-click the solution, and then select "Update VC++ Projects...". Install v120 to build using the v120 build tools.
2>C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V110\Microsoft.Cpp.Platform.targets(44,5):
error MSB8020: The builds tools for v120 (Platform Toolset = 'v120') cannot be found. To build using the v120 build tools, either click the Project menu or right-click the solution, and then select "Update VC++ Projects...". Install v120 to build using the v120 build tools.
5>C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V110\Microsoft.Cpp.Platform.targets(44,5): error MSB8020: The builds tools for v120 (Platform Toolset = 'v120') cannot be found. To build using the v120 build tools, either click the Project menu or right-click the solution, and then select "Update VC++ Projects...". Install v120 to build using the v120 build tools.
If you have VS2013 installed and are getting this error, you may be invoking the wrong MSBuild. With VS2013, Microsoft now includes MSBuild as part of Visual Studio. See this Visual Studio blog posting for details.
In particular, note the new location of the binaries:
On 32-bit machines they can be found in: C:\Program
Files\MSBuild\12.0\bin
On 64-bit machines the 32-bit tools will be under: C:\Program Files
(x86)\MSBuild\12.0\bin
and the 64-bit tools under: C:\Program Files
(x86)\MSBuild\12.0\bin\amd64
The MSBuild in %WINDIR%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\ doesn't seem to recognize the VS2013 (v120) platform toolset.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_C++
You are using Visual C++ 2012 which is v110. v120 means Visual C++ 2013.
So either you change the project settings to use toolset v110, or you install Visual Studio 2013 on this machine and use VS2013 to compile it.
if you are using visual 2012
right-click on project name -> properties -> configuration properties -> general -> platform toolset -> Visual Studio 2012 (v110)
Download and setup Microsoft Build Tools 2013 from
http://www.microsoft.com/en-US/download/details.aspx?id=40760
To add up to Kevin and Lex's answers:
We had a similar situation at work where both the developers and the build server had Visual Studio 2013. Our solution had a VS 2013 C++ project and compiled fine when built on developer's machine or on the build server within the IDE.
The issue was when triggering builds using TFS build definitions. We were still using an old build template (version 11.1) instead of 12.0. Fortunately, a simple attribute addition to the template xaml file solved the issue.
In the Sequence portion "Compile the Project", there is a xaml node that starts with
mtbwa:MSBuild CommandLineArgument=....
You can add a "ToolPath" attribute and point it to the right path of the MSBuild.exe you wish to invoke, based on Kevin's answer. For instance:
ToolPath="C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\12.0\Bin"
Wasted 4+ hours on this.
I have Visual Studio 2017 Enterprise, one of the projects has below error:
The builds tools for v120 (Platform Toolset = 'v120') cannot be found
To resolve above error, I tried to install all below:
Microsoft Build Tools 2013 (v120
tools) https://www.microsoft.com/en-US/download/details.aspx?id=40760
Microsoft Build Tools
2015 https://www.microsoft.com/en-in/download/details.aspx?id=48159
Build Tools for Visual Studio
2017 https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/#build-tools-for-visual-studio-2017
However, none of the above worked.
Later, installed Visual Studio 2013 Ultimate, then all worked fine.
Looks like, the older Visual studio is a must to resolve this.
Hope it helps.
To add up to Louis answer:
Alternatively you can use the attribute ToolVersion="12.0" if you are using Visual Studio 2013 instead of using the ToolPath Attribute. Details visit http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd647548.aspx
So you are not forced to use absolute path.
When a VS2013 C++ project is opened in VS2015, and there are warnings about "The build tools for v120... cannot be found", I simply need to edit the .vcxproj file and change <PlatformToolset>v120</PlatformToolset> to <PlatformToolset>v140</PlatformToolset>, and close and re-open the solution.
In VS 2012, I was getting "SMB2 will not build: Error 1 error MSB8020: The builds tools for Visual Studio 2010 (Platform Toolset = 'v100') cannot be found. To build using the v100 build tools, either click the Project menu or right-click the solution, and then select "Update VC++ Projects...". Install Visual Studio 2010 to build using the Visual Studio 2010 build tools."
Throwing caution to the wind, I tried the suggestion: Selected the Solution in Solution Explorer, then clicked in the "Update VC++" menu item. This did some updateing and then started a build which succeeded.
The "Update VC++" menu item no longer appears in the solution menu.
i had a similar problem when i removed VS 2013 community Update 5 and switched over to VS 2015 community edition
and the problem acquired in windows phone 8.1 projects where it complained about not having the right msbuild toolset and about the emulators not installed even if they are.
i know that the source of the problem was the VS 2013 community settings that has been left by that last uninstall which messed everything for me even though the uninstall process went smooth with no problems from the control panel.
i did my best to remove any files left but there was always some thing left.
and what only fixed it for me is a fresh windows 10 x64 installation then after it i installed VS 2015 community edition and that's it!! no more errors for me and the wp8.1 emulator worked fine too!!
in my case now am completely sure that the previous visual studio install settings has messed everything for me and because there wasn't any way i found and tried to completely erase VS 2013 community files and settings i had to pay the price for it and reinstall my OS.
you might be able to avoid OS reinstall if you can find a way to completely erase last visual studio install files.
P.S:only attempt this solution(OS reinstall) after you tried every possible way first then if nothing works and only then ... make this solution as a last resort.
In VS2013 to set up all projects to correct build tools, you can do a right click on the solution in solution explorer and choose "Retarget solution". It will change all progects (all you check with the checkbox in opened dialog), so the error will be gone.
In my case, I have double-clicked a Visual 2013 sln file and Visual 2012 opened (instead of Visual 2013). Trying to compile with Visual 2012, a project that has the Platform Toolset set to "v120" showed the error above mentioned. However, reopening the sln with Visual 2013, the Platform Toolset was set to "Visual Studio 2013 (v120)" - please note the complete name this time -, actually did the job for me. The project compiles well now.
I was getting the same error with building USBView project in VS2015. I removed this error by selecting 'Platform Toolset' settings to to "Visual Studio 2015 (v140)" and than right click on solution (in VS2015) and select 'Retarget Solution' and selected 10.0.10240.0 on that dialog.
It seems like there is also ProjectUpgradeTool from microsoft which is suppose to convert older projects to upgrade to post VS2012 VS but I couldn't locate that tool on my machine.
I still have to fix some new linker error with help of this.
I had a similar problem. VS 2015 Community (MSBuild 14) building a c++ app, wanted to use VS 2010 (v100) tools. It all came down giving msbuild an invalid configuration option. Strange.
So, recheck all those options and parameters.
If you use make generators like cmake, JUCE, etc. try to set a correct VS version target (2013, 2015, 2017) and regenerate the solution again.
I was facing same issue while building some of project.
I used Visual Studio 2015 IDE, there it was working fine but while giving build from PowerShell script, it was giving toolset related "The builds tools for v140 (Platform Toolset = 'v140') cannot be found." error
So eventually it was issue of pointing to incorrect MSBUILD exe for the respective project.
Earlier I was pointing to
$MSBUILD="C:\windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\MSBuild.exe
And build was successful when I updated script to point to
$MSBUILD="C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\14.0\Bin\MSBuild.exe"
Hence to resolve the issue, please make sure to use correct MSBUILD.
Background
I am open sourcing a few old Visual Studio applications I created a while back. I have created new solutions using my new VS2012 environment for them and have gotten the projects set up as git repositories. I got everything working fine in Visual Studio 2012 with no changes to the source code, all I needed to do was make sure I was linking the proper libraries in the new project configurations.
I would like to configure these projects as to have maximum compatibility for others downloading the project from Github. On this machine I have VS2010 installed alongside the latest VS2012 version. After I got everything working right for both of the projects in VS2012, I tried to open them up in VS2010.
When I tried to build I got a single error:
Specified platform toolset (v110) is not installed or invalid.
Please make sure that a supported PlatformToolset value is selected.
C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\Platforms\Win32\Microsoft.Cpp.Win32.Targets 518
What I Tried
So I opened up the properties for the project, went to Configuration Options --> General and the Platform Toolset was indeed set to Visual Studio 2012 (v110). This input is a drop down box and the v110 value is not listed, instead I get two choices:
v100
v90
These correspond to VS2010 and VS2008 respectively. If I change the value to v100 and rebuild I get no errors and my program runs just fine in my Visual Studio 2010 environment.
When I open the project back up in Visual Studio 2012, if tells me that I have an old project file and asks if I want to upgrade, I say yes and it upgrades. I rebuild and run to make sure everything is still working. When I open the configuration options in VS2012 the Platform Toolset is set back to `Visual Studio 2012 (v110) but clicking the drop down input there are several more choices listed:
Visual Studio 2012 (v110)
v110_wp80
Visual Studio 2012 - Windows XP (v110_xp)
Visual Studio 2010 (v100)
Visual Studio 2008 (v90)
‹inherit from parent or project defaults›
My Questions
This has led me to several questions. I am going to pose them all. It would be nice to get as much information as I can, but a good answer to just one of them would probably solve my problem.
If I'm not using features specific to newer versions of Visual Studio, is it possible to set up a solution which can be opened and run without modification in as many versions as possible (ie. 2008, 2010, or 2012)? If so, how?
If I set the Platform Toolset to v90 (VS2008) from within Visual Studio 2012, and it's able to build and run, does this mean that it will build and run for users with VS2012, VS2010, and VS2008?
What exactly does the <inherit for parent or project defaults> option do? What would the project defaults be set up as? Can this be used to tell Visual Studio to try to using whichever installed Platform Toolset will work.
Are there any other options besides Platform Toolset in Visual Studio that I can set to increase compatibility with others' development environments?
This is a somewhat tricky situation. One of the underlying problems here is that VS2010 and VS2012 use MSBuild to build C++ projects, but VS2008 farmed it out to VCBuild instead. You can see this by comparing the project files. VS2010/VS2012 use .vcxproj, while VS2008 uses .vcproj.
If I'm not using features specific to newer versions of Visual Studio,
is it possible to set up a solution which can be opened and run
without modification in as many versions as possible (ie. 2008, 2010,
or 2012)? If so, how?
For maximum compatibility, you want to target the lowest common denominator (i.e. vc90 in this case). Note that when you do the upgrade, the solution file and project files get upgraded to the latest version, which may break compatibility with older versions of Visual Studio.
If I set the Platform Toolset to v90 (VS2008) from within Visual
Studio 2012, and it's able to build and run, does this mean that it
will build and run for users with VS2012, VS2010, and VS2008?
Not really, due to the .vcxproj / .vcproj conflict stated above.
For example, I currently have a set of .vcxproj files and a solution designed for VS2010. I use VS2012 as my IDE, so when I open the VS2010 solution in VS2012, I choose to NOT upgrade it and simply open it as is. VS2012 and beyond should be backwards compatible back to VS2010 as far as project files go.
For maximum compatibility in development environments, my recommendation would be use VS2010's solution as the baseline, targeting v100. Developers can use any version newer than that and it should all work together gracefully.
I'm working on a solution that was developed under vs2008 but was opened and converted to vs2010. I was only given the vs2010 solution so I have to work under vs2010.
Is their a way to build this solution under vs2010 without using any of the vs2010 libs (Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\VC\libs) and use only those used by vs2008
In Linker > General> Additionnal Library Directories, I've already added a link to the vs2008 libs folder.
You can change the "General > Platform Toolset" property in the Visual Studio 2010 project properties to specify which version MSBuild should use to build your project. The default value is v100, but setting it to v90 would use Visual Studio 2008. This modifies your PATH, BIN, and LIB directories before compiling/linking, so you don't have to change any directory settings manually.
I think, by default only v100, v90, and Windows7.1SDK are supported, but there are tools available to target older Visual Studio versions as well.
See e.g. http://blog.iangoodsell.com/2010/04/visual-studio-2010-and-platform-toolset.html.