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What does DisableOutOfProcTaskHost do?

I recently ran into a problem with building a WPF application with the following error:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual
Studio\2019\Professional\MSBuild\Current\Bin\Microsoft.Common.CurrentVersion.targets(3036,5):
error MSB4216: Could not run the "GenerateResource" task because
MSBuild could not create or connect to a task host with runtime "CLR4"
and architecture "x64". Please ensure that (1) the requested runtime
and/or architecture are available on the machine, and (2) that the
required executable "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual
Studio\2019\Professional\MSBuild\Current\Bin\amd64\MSBuild.exe" exists
and can be run.
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual
Studio\2019\Professional\MSBuild\Current\Bin\Microsoft.Common.CurrentVersion.targets(3058,7):
error MSB4028: The "GenerateResource" task's outputs could not be
retrieved from the "FilesWritten" parameter. Object does not match
target type.
What helped me was to set a system variable DISABLEOUTOFPROCTASKHOST to 1. This solution is googled and I could not find an explanation on what is happening and why DISABLEOUTOFPROCTASKHOST helped me.
Can anyone explain to me what was the cause of the error and why the variable helped me?

In your side, it seems that you have compiled a resource with a different architecture than the host MSBuild instance is. It may be caused by the problem with different versions of your project resource files or using different versions of the code that need to launch an additional process of a differeet version of MSBuild(arm64\msbuild.exe) using a different CLR.
So the approach is that you should let MSBuild always follow the current file build version, that is, it can automatically switch between different versions of the build mechanism under the same MSBuild build process.
The solution is to add these xml node in your xxx.csproj file:
<PropertyGroup>
<GenerateResourceMSBuildArchitecture>CurrentArchitecture</GenerateResourceMSBuildArchitecture>
<GenerateResourceMSBuildRuntime>CurrentRuntime</GenerateResourceMSBuildRuntime>
</PropertyGroup>
Or add environment variable DISABLEOUTOFPROCTASKHOST to 1.(let it switch between different versions of build mechanism under the same MSBuild.exe build process)

I had the same Error.
but By Repairing Visual Studio 2019,
close VS, delete .vs hidden folder (under solution folder) ,bin and obj folder then restart your VS .
Fortunately My problem was solved.

TFSBuild 2013 unable to change msbuild version

I have a TFSBuild 2013 server that we are trying to now build UWP projects with, but we cannot seem to make it use the correct MSBuild version.
Symptoms:
When building the UWP projects, we get lots of errors like this:
C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v14.0\AppxPackage\Microsoft.AppXPackage.Targets (283): A numeric comparison was attempted on "10.0.11000.0" that evaluates to "10.0.11000.0" instead of a number, in condition "'$(TargetPlatformVersion)' >= '10.0.11000.0'".
Many reports abound for this error, all telling you to ensure that TFS Build is using the correct version of the MSBuild. And herein lies the issue. We cannot seem to make the build server use the correct version.
Here is what we have tried (build definitions are using TfvcTemplate.12.xaml template):
Installing 2015 build tools (update 3) on the build server
Installing VS2015 on the build server (Yuck)
Various combinations of MSBuild parameters in the build definition. (/tv:14.0 & /p:VisualStudioVersion=14.0)
Inclusion of Microsoft.Net.Compilers nuget package
Editing the TfvcTemplate.12.xaml template and setting "Run MSBuild" step to set "ToolsVersion" to "14.0". (Note, there is no "ToolsPath" setting in this version of the template, so I cant do that).
Setting ToolsVersion="14.0" in every .csproj file
No matter what we change, we cannot get the Build Agent to use the 14.0 version of MSBuild.
Strangely, nuget seems to find the correct version when doing the package restore. In the logs we see this when running the nuget.exe restore command: MSBuild auto-detection: using msbuild version '14.0' from 'C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\14.0\bin'.
But further down in the logs, where all the errors start we see this (note: wrong tools version):
C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\12.0\bin\MSBuild.exe /nologo /noconsolelogger "C:\Builds..." [SNIP]
Any help or suggestions gratefully received - I'm at my wits end :)

I finally gave up trying to make this behave with configuration, but managed to get this working on the build machine by hacking the registry.
I changed the following registry keys:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\MSBuild\12.0\MSBuildOverrideTasksPath
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\MSBuild\ToolsVersions\12.0\MSBuildToolsPath
In both cases, I changed the value
from:
C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\12.0\bin\
to:
C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\14.0\bin\
Disclaimer: I don't know what other affects this will have, but its got our builds using the correct MSBuild version, and is limited in scope to the build server.

Editing the TfvcTemplate.12.xaml template and setting "Run MSBuild" step to set "ToolsVersion" to "14.0".
This will work if you also add the following piece in the MSBuild 12.0 config file (as described here)
<msbuildToolsets>
<toolset toolsVersion="14.0">
<property name="MSBuildToolsPath" value="C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\14.0\Bin\" />
</toolset>
</msbuildToolsets>
Please note there is also amd64 folder in the MSbuild\bin directory which has its own config file

Cannot create .apk file after introducing Crypto Obfuscator into Xamarin.Android project

I have a task of obfuscating my Xamarin Android project (let call it AndrProj) together with libraries it references: two PCL (let's call them PCL1 and PCL2) and Android library (AndrLib). PCL2 and AndrLib also have references to PCL1.
I was inspired by this article and decided to try Crypto Obfuscator For .Net v2015 demo version for my purposes.
I used its 'Visual Studio Project Integration Wizard'. PCL1 was set as 'First project' and AndrProj as 'Last project'. Only default settings were used for the beginning. Now when I build my project everything is perfect. Dll's in \bin\Release folder are obfuscated.
I would be completely happy if I could actually create an .apk file and try it on the Android device. But when I select Build -> Archive for Publishing in Xamarin Studio, after some time I see 'Build FAILED' and
Error occurred while obfuscation: - The assembly 'AndrLib' is
already obfuscated with Crypto Obfuscator. If you have run the Visual Studio Project Integration Wizard on your Visual Studio projects, you cannot obfuscate from the Crypto Obfuscator UI unless you first disable automatic obfuscation for this project from Crypto Obfuscator's 'Project' menu --> 'Enable/Disable Visual
Studio Integration' and Rebuild your solution in Visual Studio to
produce unobfuscated assemblies.
I also tried 'Export Android Package (.apk)' from Visual Studio 2013, but it gives less output and still does not create .apk.
I believe it complains only about AndrLib because it goes first alphabetically among PCL1, PCL2 and AndrLib. And more global problem is that creating .apk forces all assemblies to be obfuscated one more time. Is there any way to skip this second time obfuscation? Or to ignore this kind of problem?

Well, the solutions was pretty simple: I had to use MSBuild.exe directly with target SignAndroidPackage instead of creating .apk from IDE.
Here is an email from technical support regarding the described problem (may be useful for someone):
If your solution fails to build after doing MSBuild Integration, try the following:
Change the build output log verbosity as follows:
Visual Studio Tools menu --> Options --> Projects And Solutions --> Build and Run --> MSBuild Project Build Output Verbosity, set this to Detailed.
Now check the Visual Studio Output window for any hints or more information regarding the cause of the error.
Change the number of threads used by MSBuild to 1 as follows:
Visual Studio Tools menu --> Options --> Project And Solutions --> Build And Run --> Maximum number of parallel threads : set this to 1.
If you get an error message similar to "The assembly 'XYZ' is already obfuscated with Crypto Obfuscator..." when you Run (CTRL+F5) or Debug (F5) your solution, then try doing a Clean ( Visual Studio Build menu --> Clean menu item) and then do the Run (CTRL+F5) or Debug (F5).
Build failure can also occur if you ran the wizard multiple times, each time selecting a different "first" project. This problem usually presents itself via a "file not found" error in the build log/output. To solve this problem, start from clean non-integrated .csproj/.vbproj files (the wizard copies the original non-integrated project files to a .backup_%timestamp% extension before modifying the project files; alternately you can open the .csproj/.vbproj files in a text editor and remove the XML added by the wizard which can be found towards the end of the file). Then run the wizard again specifying the correct first and last projects.

I had problems Archiving and the problem went away after I downgraded Visual Studio 2017 Professional from 15.9.9 to 15.7.6.

Publish project with build in VS2012 Fails with "Skipping unpublishable project"

I am migrating current solution from VS2010 to VS2012, since web deployment projects are not supported i am trying "Publish" feature on the project.
My requirement is to run "Publish" on the project while running the build. This is a ".csproj" with publish method "File System" also on settings tab of publish i have "Precompile during Publishing" and "Merge all outputs into single assembly".
I can manually run publish by right clicking on project and selecting "Publish" and it gives desired single assembly and copies it to right location, i just need this to run on build
I have tried following to no avail
Adding single line to .csproj file
<DeployOnBuild>true</DeployOnBuild>
tried adding following lines to .csproj
<FilesToIncludeForPublish>OnlyFilesToRunTheApp</FilesToIncludeForPublish>
<DeployOnBuild>true</DeployOnBuild>
<DeployTarget>Package</DeployTarget>
<PackageAsSingleFile>true</PackageAsSingleFile>
Command line
MSBuild C:\MyProj.csproj /p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:PublishProfile=WebDeploy /p:CreatePackageOnPublish=True /p:VisualStudioVersion=11.0
Above command results in
Build started 07/04/2014 14:01:05.
Project "C:\MyProj.csproj" on node 1 (default targets).
Build:
Running Publish
_DeploymentUnpublishable:
Skipping unpublishable project.
Done Building Project "C:\MyProj.csproj" (default targets).
Build succeeded.

I'm glad you solved your problem, but I kept ending up here with my own searches, and it definitely wasn't McAfee (or any antivirus software) that was getting in my way. So for anyone else who ends up here, here's what eventually worked for me:
I realized that I was doing /t:Publish instead of /t:Package on the command line. Switching that bypassed the "Skipping unpublishable project" step.
The final command line should look like this (formatted for readability):
MSBuild C:\MyProj.csproj
/p:DeployOnBuild=true
/p:PublishProfile=WebDeploy
/p:CreatePackageOnPublish=True
/p:VisualStudioVersion=11.0
/p:OutputPath="bin\\"
/t:Package

To my surprise it turned out to be McAfee antivirus which is messing up "Publish" here, i was doing things right and it all works fine with McAfee turned off, somehow the antivirus stops the aspnet_compiler.exe to pre-compile the site and as a result the pre-compilation and subsequent merge steps(merge dlls into single assembly) fails, hope no one goes through same pain to find this out.

I had the same problem and the cause was this line in my .csproj:
<OutputType>WinExe</OutputType>
I changed it to be a Case Sensitive match with the rules in Microsoft.Common.targets:
<OutputType>winexe</OutputType>
I it worked!

Using MSBuild.exe command line, you can specify the output path like below:
You will explore on c:\Program Files(x86)\MSBuild\14.0\Bin ,Then you run this command:
.\MSBuild.exe [path of your project]/[projectName].csproj /P:Configuration=Release /p:Platform=AnyCPU / p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:WebPublishMethod=FileSystem /p:outdir="c:\output\\" /p:VisualStudioVersion=14.0
Please pay attention that you must create the output folder.
If you are going to build all projects on solution you have to use below command:
.\MSBuild.exe [path of your project]/[solutionName].sln /P:Configuration=Release /p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:WebPublishMethod=FileSystem /p:outdir="c:\output\\"

Using msbuild to execute a File System Publish Profile

I have a c# .Net 4.0 project created with VS2010 and now being accessed with VS2012.
I'm trying to publish only the needed files from this website to a destination location (C:\builds\MyProject[Files])
My file structure:
./ProjectRoot/MyProject.csproj
./ProjectRoot/Properties/PublishProfiles/FileSystemDebug.pubxml
I'm running the following via MSBuild:
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\MSBuild.exe ./ProjectRoot/MyProject.csproj /p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:PublishProfile=./ProjectRoot/Properties/PublishProfiles/FileSystemDebug.pubxml
Here's the xml in FileSystemDebug.pubxml
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<WebPublishMethod>FileSystem</WebPublishMethod>
<LastUsedBuildConfiguration>Release</LastUsedBuildConfiguration>
<LastUsedPlatform>Any CPU</LastUsedPlatform>
<SiteUrlToLaunchAfterPublish />
<ExcludeApp_Data>False</ExcludeApp_Data>
<publishUrl>C:\builds\MyProject\</publishUrl>
<DeleteExistingFiles>True</DeleteExistingFiles>
</PropertyGroup>
</Project>
The resulting behavior is:
a zip file is created here:./ProjectRoot/obj/Debug/Package/MyProject.zip
Nothing is deployed to <publishUrl>C:\builds\MyProject\</publishUrl> WTF
the zip file that is created is a pigs breakfast and full of files that aren't needed for the application.
When I run this publish profile through visual studio a folder is created at *C:\builds\MyProject* and contains the exact artifacts that I want.
How do I get this simple result from msbuild?

FYI: I had the same issue with Visual Studio 2015. After many of hours trying, I can now do msbuild myproject.csproj /p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:PublishProfile=myprofile.
I had to edit my .csproj file to get it working. It contained a line like this:
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets"
Condition="false" />
I changed this line as follows:
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v14.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" />
(I changed 10.0 to 14.0, not sure whether this was necessary. But I definitely had to remove the condition part.)

Found the answer here:
http://www.digitallycreated.net/Blog/59/locally-publishing-a-vs2010-asp.net-web-application-using-msbuild
Visual Studio 2010 has great new Web Application Project publishing
features that allow you to easy publish your web app project with a
click of a button. Behind the scenes the Web.config transformation and
package building is done by a massive MSBuild script that’s imported
into your project file (found at: C:\Program Files
(x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\Web\Microsoft.Web.Publishing.targets).
Unfortunately, the script is hugely complicated, messy and
undocumented (other then some oft-badly spelled and mostly useless
comments in the file). A big flowchart of that file and some
documentation about how to hook into it would be nice, but seems to be
sadly lacking (or at least I can’t find it).
Unfortunately, this means performing publishing via the command line
is much more opaque than it needs to be. I was surprised by the lack
of documentation in this area, because these days many shops use a
continuous integration server and some even do automated deployment
(which the VS2010 publishing features could help a lot with), so I
would have thought that enabling this (easily!) would be have been a
fairly main requirement for the feature.
Anyway, after digging through the Microsoft.Web.Publishing.targets
file for hours and banging my head against the trial and error wall,
I’ve managed to figure out how Visual Studio seems to perform its
magic one click “Publish to File System” and “Build Deployment
Package” features. I’ll be getting into a bit of MSBuild scripting, so
if you’re not familiar with MSBuild I suggest you check out this crash
course MSDN page.
Publish to File System
The VS2010 Publish To File System Dialog Publish to File System took
me a while to nut out because I expected some sensible use of MSBuild
to be occurring. Instead, VS2010 does something quite weird: it calls
on MSBuild to perform a sort of half-deploy that prepares the web
app’s files in your project’s obj folder, then it seems to do a manual
copy of those files (ie. outside of MSBuild) into your target publish
folder. This is really whack behaviour because MSBuild is designed to
copy files around (and other build-related things), so it’d make sense
if the whole process was just one MSBuild target that VS2010 called
on, not a target then a manual copy.
This means that doing this via MSBuild on the command-line isn’t as
simple as invoking your project file with a particular target and
setting some properties. You’ll need to do what VS2010 ought to have
done: create a target yourself that performs the half-deploy then
copies the results to the target folder. To edit your project file,
right click on the project in VS2010 and click Unload Project, then
right click again and click Edit. Scroll down until you find the
Import element that imports the web application targets
(Microsoft.WebApplication.targets; this file itself imports the
Microsoft.Web.Publishing.targets file mentioned earlier). Underneath
this line we’ll add our new target, called PublishToFileSystem:
<Target Name="PublishToFileSystem"
DependsOnTargets="PipelinePreDeployCopyAllFilesToOneFolder">
<Error Condition="'$(PublishDestination)'==''"
Text="The PublishDestination property must be set to the intended publishing destination." />
<MakeDir Condition="!Exists($(PublishDestination))"
Directories="$(PublishDestination)" />
<ItemGroup>
<PublishFiles Include="$(_PackageTempDir)\**\*.*" />
</ItemGroup>
<Copy SourceFiles="#(PublishFiles)"
DestinationFiles="#(PublishFiles->'$(PublishDestination)\%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)')"
SkipUnchangedFiles="True" />
</Target>
This target depends on the
PipelinePreDeployCopyAllFilesToOneFolder target, which is what VS2010
calls before it does its manual copy. Some digging around in
Microsoft.Web.Publishing.targets shows that calling this target causes
the project files to be placed into the directory specified by the
property _PackageTempDir.
The first task we call in our target is the Error task, upon which
we’ve placed a condition that ensures that the task only happens if
the PublishDestination property hasn’t been set. This will catch you
and error out the build in case you’ve forgotten to specify the
PublishDestination property. We then call the MakeDir task to create
that PublishDestination directory if it doesn’t already exist.
We then define an Item called PublishFiles that represents all the
files found under the _PackageTempDir folder. The Copy task is then
called which copies all those files to the Publish Destination folder.
The DestinationFiles attribute on the Copy element is a bit complex;
it performs a transform of the items and converts their paths to new
paths rooted at the PublishDestination folder (check out Well-Known
Item Metadata to see what those %()s mean).
To call this target from the command-line we can now simply perform
this command (obviously changing the project file name and properties
to suit you):
msbuild Website.csproj "/p:Platform=AnyCPU;Configuration=Release;PublishDestination=F:\Temp\Publish" /t:PublishToFileSystem

Still had trouble after trying all of the answers above (I use Visual Studio 2013). Nothing was copied to the publish folder.
The catch was that if I run MSBuild with an individual project instead of a solution, I have to put an additional parameter that specifies Visual Studio version:
/p:VisualStudioVersion=12.0
12.0 is for VS2013, replace with the version you use. Once I added this parameter, it just worked.
The complete command line looks like this:
MSBuild C:\PathToMyProject\MyProject.csproj /p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:PublishProfile=MyPublishProfile /p:VisualStudioVersion=12.0
I've found it here:
http://www.asp.net/mvc/overview/deployment/visual-studio-web-deployment/command-line-deployment
They state:
If you specify an individual project instead of a solution, you have to add a parameter that specifies the Visual Studio version.

It looks to me like your publish profile is not being used, and doing some default packaging. The Microsoft Web Publish targets do all what you are doing above, it selects the correct targets based on the config.
I got mine to work no problem from TeamCity MSBuild step, but I did specify an explicit path to the profile, you just have to call it by name with no .pubxml (e.g. FileSystemDebug). It will be found so long as in the standard folder, which yours is.
Example:
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\MSBuild.exe ./ProjectRoot/MyProject.csproj /p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:PublishProfile=FileSystemDebug
Note this was done using the Visual Studio 2012 versions of the Microsoft Web Publish targets, normally located at "C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v11.0\Web". Check out the deploy folder for the specific deployment types targets that are used

Actually I merged all your answers to my own solution how to solve the above problem:
I create the pubxml file according my needs
Then I copy all the parameters from pubxml file to my own list of parameters "/p:foo=bar" for msbuild.exe
I throw away the pubxml file
The result is like that:
msbuild /t:restore /t:build /p:WebPublishMethod=FileSystem /p:publishUrl=C:\builds\MyProject\ /p:DeleteExistingFiles=True /p:LastUsedPlatform="Any CPU" /p:Configuration=Release

FYI: Same problem with running on a build server (Jenkins with msbuild 15 installed, driven from VS 2017 on a .NET Core 2.1 web project).
In my case it was the use of the "publish" target with msbuild that ignored the profile.
So my msbuild command started with:
msbuild /t:restore;build;publish
This correctly triggerred the publish process, but no combination or variation of "/p:PublishProfile=FolderProfile" ever worked to select the profile I wanted to use ("FolderProfile").
When I stopped using the publish target:
msbuild /t:restore;build /p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:PublishProfile=FolderProfile
I (foolishly) thought that it would make no difference, but as soon as I used the DeployOnBuild switch it correctly picked up the profile.

First check the Visual studio version of the developer PC which can publish the solution(project).
as shown is for VS 2013
/p:VisualStudioVersion=12.0
add the above command line to specify what kind of a visual studio version should build the project. As previous answers, this might happen when we are trying to publish only one project, not the whole solution.
So the complete code would be something like this
"C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\msbuild.exe" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Jenkins\workspace\Jenkinssecondsample\MVCSampleJenkins\MVCSampleJenkins.csproj" /T:Build;Package /p:Configuration=DEBUG /p:OutputPath="obj\DEBUG" /p:DeployIisAppPath="Default Web Site/jenkinsdemoapp" /p:VisualStudioVersion=12.0

Run from the project folder
msbuild /p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:PublishProfile="release-file.pubxml" /p:AspnetMergePath="C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v10.0A\bin\NETFX 4.8 Tools" /p:Configuration=Release
This takes care of web.config Transform and AspnetMergePath