How do I load the 64-bit Visual Studio Tools Command Prompt? - visual-studio-2010

Question

My development machine is running Windows 7 Ultimate x64. I installed Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate. When I open the Visual Studio Command Prompt (2010), I get the message
Setting environment for using Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 x86 tools.
I have also setup the PowerShell Community Extensions in my Windows PowerShell user profile. And I use the Invoke-BatchFile cmdlet to install the Visual Studio Tools into all my PowerShell sessions
$vcargs = ?: {$Pscx:Is64BitProcess} {'amd64'} {'x86'}
$vcvars = "${env:VS100COMNTOOLS}..\..\VC\vcvarsall.bat"
Invoke-BatchFile $vcvars $vcargs
My vcargs resolves to amd64. I looked in the vcvarsall.bat file for the location of the x64 batch file and got ~dp0bin\amd64\vcvars64.bat. That directory (and file) does not exist.
How do I get the vcvars64.bat file installed properly?

Answer 1

When running in the batch processor, %~dp0 expands to the path where the .bat file is executing. So in the default install for VS2010, that resolves to c:\program files\microsoft visual studio 10.0\vc\bin\amd64\vcvars64.bat. Which is indeed missing, that's a bug they don't seem to be interesting in fixing.
Use "x86_amd64" instead. You'll get the cross compiler, the same one that's used by the IDE.

Answer 2

Install the x64 Components
The problem is an incomplete installation of Visual Studio. I only installed the C# components. I needed to install, at least, the Visual C++ x64 Compilers and Tools.
Adding Components to an Existing Installation
I had problems adding those components to an existing installation. VS2010, especially with SP1 installed, has a ton of bugs around modifying the installation. I encountered some kind of path not found error
I uninstalled SP1 first. I needed the VS2010 installation media on hand (unpack to a directory, insert the real disc, or mount to a virtual drive).
Then I added the VC++ components to the VS installation
Then I was able to reinstall SP1.

Answer 3

I've run into roughly the same problem a number of times. It appears that the structure MS has set up for this is so fragile that installing or removing any software on the same machine (or, apparently, breathing anywhere near that machine) can and will break it. Worse, they have a nearly impenetrable web of batch files invoking each other, that in the end carry out some fairly trivial tasks in what appears to be nearly the most roundabout way possible.
Although I suppose it wastes a bit of memory I decided to simplify my life a bit, and use this:
#include <windows.h>
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <process.h>
void setenv(std::string const &name, std::string const &value) {
SetEnvironmentVariable(name.c_str(), value.c_str());
}
std::string vs_base = "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\\";
std::string vc_base = vs_base + "VC\\";
std::string sdk_dir = "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft SDKs\\Windows\\v7.0A\\";
int main(int argc, char **argv) {
char inc_name[] = "INCLUDE";
char lib_name[] = "LIB";
char path_name[] = "PATH";
std::string inc_dir = getenv(inc_name);
std::string lib_dir = getenv(lib_name);
std::string path_dir = getenv(path_name);
inc_dir = vc_base + "include;" + sdk_dir + "include;" + inc_dir;
lib_dir = vc_base + "lib;" + sdk_dir + "lib;" + lib_dir;
path_dir = vc_base + "bin;" + sdk_dir + "bin;" + vs_base + "Common7\\IDE;" + path_dir;
setenv(inc_name, inc_dir);
setenv(lib_name, lib_dir);
setenv(path_name, path_dir);
char path[MAX_PATH];
GetSystemDirectory(path, sizeof(path));
strcat(path, "\\cmd.exe");
_spawnlp(_P_WAIT, path, path, NULL);
return 0;
}
You'll have to adjust the base directories at the top for the locations where you have things installed. One of these days I suppose I should rewrite this to use a separate configuration file (I've pretty much worked out an XML format that should work reasonably well), but this has worked well enough that I haven't bothered to finish that, and since it's for a programmer anyway, doing a trivial modification and re-compile isn't particularly onerous.

Answer 4

I had the problem, where I had visual studio 2010 professional (i'm guessing not SP1, it says "Version 10.0.30319.1 RTMRel" in About), and I also had the problem where in the C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\VC folder, it had vcvarsall.bat, but all of the paths that it tried to find any of the other .bat files were invalid, aka I had no other bat files.
I came across this forum post and it was the only thing that solved my problem.
Some people here were also saying "just use SetEnv" but i didn't know where it was because it wasn't in my PATH (typing setenv resulted in 'command not found'), so this is a more complete answer, that i'm posting here so people don't have to struggle like I did for so long
Posting here for archival purposes:
The batch file to set the environment parameters to compile for 64 bit
is contained in the Windows SDK.
After installing the Windows SDK use the following call CALL
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.1\Bin\SetEnv.cmd" /x64
Or create file C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio
10.0\vc\bin\amd64\vcvars64bat with the line above.

Answer 5

Do you have the Microsoft Windows SDK 7.1?
Open your ordinary Visual Studio Command Prompt and type:
setenv /x64
If your 64bit compilers are missing, you might need to read KB2519277.