If I have a VS 2005 solution then it shows up as "Version: Visual Studio 2005". If I have a VS 2010 solution, the sln file shows up as related to that.
Both of them have a .sln suffix. So how does Windows know which version of VS to open it with?
It uses Property Handler and Icon Handler shell extensions (part of the Visual Studio Version Selector)
These are registered by the registry key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VisualStudio.Launcher.sln (referenced by HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.sln)
When you open the file, it runs "c:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\MSEnv\VSLauncher.exe" "%1", which reads the version from the .sln file and open the correct version.
Related
How can the entry
<MsTestExePath>$(MSBuildProgramFiles32)Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\mstest.exe</MsTestExePath>
in a .proj file be generalised, such that the build works for different licenses of Visual Studio 2019 as well, where mstest.exe is located at
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual
Studio\2019\Enterprise\Common7\IDE\MSTest.exe
in the case of an enterprise license?
The most generic solution may be to replace the variable parts of the path with msbuild macros, but which ones would that be?
According to this documentation,
The macro
$(VSInstallDir)
returns the path to the installation folder of the Visual Studio version currently used.
The following entry should therefore work for all versions of visual studio, for which mstest.exe is located in the subfolder \Common7\IDE\ under the installation directory:
<MsTestExePath>$(VSInstallDir)Common7\IDE\mstest.exe</MsTestExePath>
In Visual Studio 2017's New Project dialog, there is no entry for Windows Installer XML (WiX).
Is it possible to enable WiX projects in Visual Studio 2017?
You can manually enable Visual Studio 2017 compatibility with WiX 3.10 or earlier:
Close all instances of Visual Studio.
Copy
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\Extensions\Microsoft\WiX to
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Enterprise\Common7\IDE\Extensions\Microsoft\WiX
(In the destination path, replace "Enterprise" with "Professional" or "Community" depending on your edition.)
You may need to provide Administrator permission:
The result will look like this:
Copy C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\WiX to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Enterprise\MSBuild\Microsoft\WiX
Then execute the following command as Administrator:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Enterprise\Common7\IDE\devenv" /setup
(Again, replace "Enterprise" with "Professional" or "Community" depending on your edition.)
When you open Visual Studio 2017, WiX 3.10 and earlier projects will be compatible.
WiX v3.11.0.1507 provides full support for the VS 2017 Extension For WiX.
The Release Notes provide insight into why it has taken so long to provide the extension and compatibility with the extension and older versions of WiX
Note: You can use the "WiX Toolset Visual Studio 2017 Extension" with previous versions of the WiX Toolset but there is a forwards compatibility issue when building managed custom actions that is only fixed in the WiX v3.11 RC release. In other words, if you have managed custom actions and you want to use VS 2017 then you must upgrade to WiX v3.11 RC.
Edit:
The VS 2019 Extension is now available.
Edit:
The VS 2022 Extension is now available.
The Wix Releases Page has links to the other extensions.
I found that I also had to copy the WiX folder from "C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Enterprise\MSBuild\Microsoft". Without this, I got an error trying to load my WiX project that one of the MSBuild targets files couldn't be found.
WiX now offers support for Visual Studio 2017.
All you have to do is:
Close Visual Studio 2017
Install the WiX Toolset Build Tools
Install the WiX Toolset Visual Studio 2017 Extension
The answer by Chris works, but on my machine, for some reason, the Wix folder in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\Extensions\Microsoft\WiX" had only one template named "CustomActionCPP.zip". I had to search for a complete Wix folder in other older versions of Visual Studio. It worked for me by copying Wix from "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\Extensions\Microsoft\WiX\ProjectTemplates".
Also, had to apply the answer by Basim, by copying Wix from "C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft" to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\MSBuild\Microsoft".
I have installed ONLY VS2017 and had to copy from another machine where VS2015 was installed the mentionen folder of #Chris Schiffhauer. The same for the folder of #Basim mentioned.
Addiontally I had to copy the "C:\Program Files (x86)\Wix Toolset 3.10\" because when I have installed WiX on my machine in this folder were still some assemblies missing.
Install the Wix Toolset Visual Studio 2019 Extension and reload the project
right-click the project folder in the path and uncheck the read-only
after install the Extension reload the Wix
use the below URL download
https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=WixToolset.WixToolsetVisualStudio2019Extension
I am using Visual Studio 2012 (Update 5) with MS Window Kits 8.0 and .NET Framework 4.5.51209. Recently, I also installed MS Window Kits 8.1.
Now, I have a file: '\windows kits\8.0\include\shared\iprtrmib.h' that failes to include 'mprapidef.h'.
That include file only exists at: '\Windows Kits\8.1\Include\shared\mprapidef.h', which is not in my include path.
My Visual Studio 'Include Directories' is set to: "$(VCInstallDir)include;$(VCInstallDir)atlmfc\include;$(WindowsSDK_IncludePath);".
These are my Visual Studio macros:
VCInstallDir: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\VC\
WindowsSDK_IncludePath: C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.0\Include\um;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.0\Include\shared;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.0\Include\winrt
When searching, I found a slightly similar question: missing header file on a new installation of visual studio 2012
I tried repairing my Visual Studio installation. I do not want to change the 'Include Directories' for each of my projects. What else should I try?
I installed vs2015 and vs2012, then the same problem occurs,however, I find a solution.
open visual studio project settings,click VC++ Directories, find Include Directories,add the following line to it.
C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.1\Include\shared
One may add the corresponding 8.1 paths to the environment variable.
Maybe it's necessary to do the same thing with the lib environment variable (WindowsSDK_LibraryPath_x86).
The command 'xsd' in the Visual Studio (2010) command window is not fiding my file.
Tried full path 'c:\...\etc...', tried path from project folder, tried any sub path of the full path, tried only the file name (as shown on any example in the web of the usage of the tool).
The file is inside the project inside a subfolder, like "project\schema\mySchema.xsd".
Command used
>Tools.Shell xsd <path\>myfile.xsd /classes
returns:
The operation could not be completed. System could not find specified file.
What work around can I make, how should I properly use the tool? (Am I using it wrongly?)
To find XSD.exe these days, go to:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v10.0A\bin\NETFX 4.7.2
Tools\xsd.exe
Step by step:
Go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\
Click latest version (e.g. v10.0A)
Click Bin
Select latest .NET Version e.g. NETFX 4.7.2 Tools
There is xsd.exe
When you launch the shortcut that opens the Visual Studio Command Prompt you execute a batch file that set some important string inside the PATH environment variable. These strings contain the folder names where the XSD tool is located.
The shortcuts are located in this folder on my dev PC with Visual Studio 2013
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\Tools\Shortcuts
The shortcut that opens the Command Prompt for Visual Studio x86 Native Tools is something like this
%comspec% /k ""C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\VC\vcvarsall.bat"" x86
So, unless your installation is damaged you should be able to find the correct command in the relative directory of your Visual Studio 2010 install.
I have added Visual studio to my startup folder in windows, now I want that when it launches it should load a particular solution by default. So that I don't have to check from the recent projects and select them.
So when my windows starts it launches visual studio and loads this solution and I am ready to code.
You can add a shortcut to your .sln solution file to the startup folder instead of a shortcut to VS. It will load VS with this solution.
If you already have devenv.exe added in startup, the next step is to add the argument with the path to the solution.
Right click the shortcut to devenv.exe under your startup folder.
Click properties.
Update the target field from
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio
11.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe"
to something like this
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio
11.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe" "C:\Your path\HelloWorld.sln"
You can see additional information about Devenv Command Line Switches here.