In our company for software development we are mainly using VisualStudio 2010 (Platform toolset v100).
We ran into a situation where we needed to work with some poorly organized third party SDK that was compiled using VisualStudio 2008 (V90) and this SDK can't function normally while working in the "v100" platform toolset.
What I mean by "poorly organized" is.. imagine for example an SDK export functions that has something like a "std::string" in it.
The solution was to create a "wrapper" dll that we compiled using VS2010, but with a "Platform Toolset v90" option. But for "Platform Toolset v90" to work, we needed to install a VisualStudio 2008.
My question is: Is there any legal way to use v90 platform toolset in VS2010 without buying VisualStudio 2008? Maybe there is some kind of v90 "toolset package" or something that we could use?
Thanks.
As user1240436 stated in his comment, it should also be possible to install the Microsoft Platform SDK. I think v6.0 and higher contain the VC 9.0 and its environment.
As far as I know, it should be possible to use the Visual C++ 2008 Express Edition
It just has to be installed on the compiling machine, everything else could be done via VS2010. (This way you could also build multi project solutions etc)
Related
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
Can we use MSBuild without Visual Studio 2012?
Currently, we have a build server where we are compiling and creating deployment copy of one of our projects, it has Visual Studio Professional Edition installed. We are setting up a new build server now. Do we really need Visual Studio 2012 on the new build server?
If yes, then how? I googled it but I couldn't find an answer.
We have spent a lot of time trying to get our Build Servers to work without Visual Studio.
We do not use TFS for builds and therefore I am not sure the license exemption above applies to us. Also not having Visual Studio installed helps you really understand how your software is building and get references correct.
We have seen many examples of solutions with projects that contains references for the same piece of software with some in nuget packages shipped with the solution and others that are pointing to locations in the "program files" path which are not present on machines without Visual Studio installed. Once you attempt to build software without VS installed you can really see how "self-contained" your applications are.
Before I start listing the things you typically need to install, let me just point out that MS Build is now no longer considered part of the .NET framework but is shipped with Visual Studio but can also be installed separately. See this blog post for more: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudio/archive/2013/07/24/msbuild-is-now-part-of-visual-studio.aspx
The following software needs to be installed for most builds, there may be others for example if you are creating portable class libraries.
Microsoft Build Tools 2013
Web Deploy 3.5 (for packaging applications)
Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.1 Developer Pack
Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.2 Developer Pack
Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) for Windows 8 (You can use the SDK to build applications that target these operating systems: Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008)
The following directories need to be copied:
Reference Assemblies (need to be copied from a machine running Visual Studio from/to directory C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies)
Public Assemblies (need to be copied from a machine running Visual Studio from/to directory C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\IDE\PublicAssemblies
We also use Wix and therefore we install the following:
WIX Toolset 3.8
I have a similar set for testing however that was not part of the question so I will leave that off!
Hope this helps someone.
Update: 3rd March 2017
Microsoft recently responded to a long standing user voice request "Support .NET Builds without requiring Visual Studio on the server" for the requirement for Visual Studio to be installed on a build server to be removed.
From the description on the download page "These Build Tools allow you to build native and managed MSBuild-based applications without requiring the Visual Studio IDE." Not tested yet but after RTM I will look at this and provide a further update here.
There is a blog post that promises these build tools install all pre-requisites and can be used to build MS Build based applications.
No, you don't need Visual Studio on your build box. If I recall correctly, msbuild is installed as part of the .NET framework - it certainly used to be.
Depending on what you're building, you may find that there are some things which are easier to get working if you do install Visual Studio though - things like portable class library profiles. While there are usually non-VS installers available, I've found it simpler to install an Express edition of Visual Studio just to get the bundled build targets.
Remember: The easiest way to build your visual studio solutions is to install Visual Studio on the build server. Even Visual Studio Express is often enough.
That said, you can make it work without it. But it it sometimes a lot of work to figure out. You'll need to install the right Windows / .NET Platform SDK. You can install multiple of these SDKs side by side. Now, when you depend, for example, on ASP.NET MVC 5 or Entity Framework 6, you might need to install further SDKs to get your application to compile. The downloads for these all assume that you also have Visual Studio installed, but many of their payloads can also be installed separately. It can become quite a hassle.
Personally I've grown tired of trying to figure out which parts of which installers enable what. But that is also driven by the fact that Microsoft allows you to install Visual Studio on a build server (TFS) with the same license as your development machine as long as you are an MSDN subscriber. Check the Visual Studio License Whitepaper for more details.
Using Visual Studio on the Build Server
If you have one or more licensed users of Visual Studio Ultimate with MSDN, Visual Studio Premium with MSDN, or Visual
Studio Professional with MSDN, then you may also install the Visual Studio software as part of Team Foundation Server
2013 Build Services. This way, you do not need to purchase a Visual Studio license to cover the running of Visual Studio on
the build server for each person whose actions initiate a build.
If you, like me, would prefer this to change in the future, I suggest you make sure you're heard by submitting your request or voting for an existing one over at the Visual Studio User Voice.
Here's just a quick take on this.
Your build machine should decouple development tools as much as is possible. With that said, and as already stated by others here, MSBuild can be run independently of Visual Studio, and it should!
If your build requires Visual Studio to run then there is a very good chance that you have a solution or project architecture problem that ought to be resolved.
Visual Studio doesn't need to be installed. MSBuild is part of the .net SDK.
Other .net dependencies will need to be installed though, if you are using them. MSTest, or anything that is part of Team foundation will require Visual Studio installed.
I believe you only need MSBuild ( that is part of the .NET framework you're targeting ) .
Make sure you install the proper .NET distribution
the following is a good place for build servers it have the developer tooling.
The .NET Framework 4.5.1 Developer Pack installs the multi-targeting pack for .NET Framework 4.5.1. Developers can build applications targeting the .NET Framework 4.5.1 using either Visual Studio 2012 or third party IDEs. You need to download the web installer instead of this package if you intend to redistribute .NET Framework 4.5.1.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40772
Best of luck.
C++ :
There is a "Build Tools" that contains MSBuild, Visual studio is not required.
From the official doc :
These tools allow you to build C++ libraries and applications
targeting Windows desktop. They are the same tools that you find in
Visual Studio 2015 in a scriptable standalone installer. Now you only
need to download the tools you need to build C++ projects.
Managed :
The same applied : Build Tool Managed
I have a Windows CE 5.0-based Platform Builder image. It is intended to be installed on Visual Studio 2005. My team would like to upgrade our build tools to utilize Visual Studio 2012, but Visual Studio 2012 does not support this platform image.
To be clear; I am not asking whether or not Visual Studio 2012 (or higher) supports Platform Builder SDKs targeting Windows CE 5.0. That question has already been answered (more or less), and the answer is clearly "No."
Instead, what I'd like to do is install the Platform Builder SDK, and manually modify the Visual Studio 2012 environment to allow compilation of my Windows CE code. Features like remote debugging and deployment are acceptable losses to my team; we have our own pathway for deployment and debugging on our embedded device. What I'm really hoping to gain is simply the ability to build WinCE 5.0 code in VS2012, which was intended for VS2005. I am attempting to reduce the number of Visual Studio installations, and get access to the superior intellisense faculties of newer versions of Visual Studio.
Does anyone know if this is possible? How would I go about doing that?
There does not appear to be a way to do this, in such a fashion as to no longer require Visual Studio 2005.
You can, however, use registry hacks to force Visual Studio 2012 to build a WinCE 5.0 project by utilizing the compiler binaries from Visual Studio 2005, during compilation. This would allow you to develop code in VS2012, but would also require that VS2005 be installed for a successful build.
Here is an article explaining the steps to set this up.
VS2012 doesn't have any of the Windows CE compilers. The last one that shipped with compilers compatible with CE 5.0 was VS 2008, so that's the "latest" version you'll be able to use to build. (VS2012 is capable of building for Windows CE, but only for WEC 2013, and only after installing a WEC 2013 SDK, which includes the requisite compiler pieces).
In short, there's no way you can get VS2012 by itself to compile a CE 7.0 or earlier app.
There is a plug-in for VS 2013 that will allow you to use that IDE for managed code (I've never used it, so I can't say how well it works), but it still requires VS 2008 to be installed to get the compilers.
If I have a Visual Studio Solution file of VS2012 with few C++ native projects and a few C# projects, can I build this solution without installing Visual Studio 2012 itself?
This would ease (among other things) the maintenance on our Build-Server nodes.
You will need to install VS2012 Express.
Based on Microsoft documentation:
The Windows SDK no longer ships with a complete command-line build environment. You must install a compiler and build environment separately. If you require a complete development environment that includes compilers and a build environment, you can download Visual Studio 2012 Express, which includes the appropriate components of the Windows SDK.
There's also SharpDevelop... That should be able to build whatever you need. You may need to install the SDK, too- not sure. But it's quite a bit more lightweight than VS (express or not). And there's always Mono (and MonoDevelop/Xamarin Studio) for the C# and LLVM, MinGW and LCC for the C/C++ compilation, should you feel Microsoft's compilers have cooties. LLVM just released their first version for Windows not long ago, but it seems pretty solid... MinGW has been working on Windows for ages (and cross-compiling to Windows from various POSIX OSes, to boot). LCC can be slightly flaky at times, but it's tiny. I think the licensing is a bit restrictive, too, but you'll want to check yourself if that's the route you intend to go.
Also... just found this: Walkthrough: Using MSBuild to Create a Visual C++ Project.
I just installed .NET framework 4.5, the Windows 8 SDK, and the Windows 8 DDK on 2 different machines (one at home managed by me, one at work originally setup by IT) both with Visual Studio 2010 Professional SP1 already installed, and both running Window 7 Professional.
I had an old C++/Win32 application in Windows XP that used both the Windows SDK and DDK. I updated it for Windows 7 and Visual Studio 2010 project settings. However, it would not build because some of the SDK/DDK include and library files are new, and it couldn't find them with Platform Toolset set to "v100" in Visual Studio.
Manually adding the Include and Lib folders to the project made it build and run correctly.
Is there some way that I can add the newly installed SDK and DDK to Visual Studio 2010's "Platform Toolset" list? I thought it was supposed to do this automatically, but neither of the machines I use have it in their list after install and reboot.
After researching this quite a bit, I finally found a solution. It doesn't look like it can be added to "Platform Toolset" via any simple method, but at least you don't have to add the paths on every single project you want to use the API. This worked for me, and allowed me to build Microsoft's "USBView sample application" written for VS2012. The way Microsoft recommends (from the official Microsoft Visual C++ Team blog) is:
For a single project:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/vcblog/archive/2012/03/25/10287354.aspx
This seems to work with the final SDK release as well.
To apply those settings across multiple projects:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/vcblog/archive/2012/11/23/using-the-windows-8-sdk-with-visual-studio-2010-configuring-multiple-projects.aspx