TL;DR: Clean Windows build server, MS Build Tools 2019 and TFS 2013 installed.
Build Logs says Exception Message: File not found: MSBuild.exe (type FileNotFoundException)
How Do I setup MSBUILD toolpath in a XAML file on TFS 2013, configured to use MSBuild 2019 with a Visual Studio 2019 Enterprise installed on my dev box.
Please provide FULL XAML file that WORKS with TFS2013 (update 3) with an explicit custom msbuild path.
A Bit more info:
We have a multi server setup for our TFS build routines running version 2013.
One controller and a few agent servers here and there, nothing fancy.
Recently I added yet another for GUI Testing - I need the agent service to be in Interactive mode.
Steps so far:
Installed TFS 2013 including two agents - linking to the main controller.
I install Build Tools version 2019
I added tags to control the build destribution.
Activated a build and the rest is history.
I'm four (frustrating) days in on this - I've read every Stack Overflow TFS set toolpath entry I can find, and a huge bunch of odd forums, yet none seems to scratch my itch here.
I even added both paths you see further down, to the Windows environment PATH variable. Im not sure that does anything anymore.
See; Everybody talks about this entry in the XAML that says toolpath (or similar) - but; I dont see it. We use a minor changed version of a TfvcTemplate.12.Xaml.
Many also talk about this GUI tool for editing XALM files, where I get to see all the different options available (I presume) - can someone help me with this too? Its certainly not working out of the box with a 2019 Enterprise????
So; I installed this Extension Process Template Editor, but of course nothing happens when I click a XAML file, just more XML :)
I now have a few added paths on the new server, where I see instances of msbuild.exe installed (MS/.NET get your act together, please)
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\BuildTools\MSBuild\Current\Bin
C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\12.0\Bin
Please try not to write this off as a duplicate at first glance. I know its similar to other questions - however; Devil is in the details.
Set toolpath to MSBuild 2019 in a TFS 2013 using (XALM) build process templates
Just as you know, the Old Visual Studio versions installed msbuild into C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\<version>\bin and apparently the RunMSBuild activity used the ToolVersion + the ToolArchitecture to calculate this path.
VS 2019 build tool instead installs it C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\BuildTools\MSBuild\Current\Bin and the RunMSBuild can't calculate the proper path anymore. You can not use the old DefaultTemplate12.xaml to integrate with VS2019 build tool.
To make this work, you could try to modify the TFSBuildServiceHost.exe.config and you must have a version of VS 2019 build tool or VS2019 installed on the build server in order for this to work.
More detail step please follow Jonesy2488's answer in this link:How to get VS 2017 working with TFS 2017 XAML Builds.
Besides, we could also try to use MSBuild task instead of Visual Studio Build task, then specify the location of MSBuild 16.0:
Hope this helps.
I made it work by changing ToolVersion for mtba:RunMSBuild in TfvcTemplate.12.xaml to the required version and adding MSBuildToolsPath to Windows Registry.
Registry settings for 15.0 and 16.0
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSBuild\ToolsVersions]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSBuild\ToolsVersions\15.0]
"MSBuildToolsPath"="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\2017\\BuildTools\\MSBuild\\15.0\\Bin\\amd64"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSBuild\ToolsVersions\16.0]
"MSBuildToolsPath"="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\2019\\BuildTools\\MSBuild\\Current\\Bin\\amd64"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\MSBuild\ToolsVersions]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\MSBuild\ToolsVersions\15.0]
"MSBuildToolsPath"="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\2017\\BuildTools\\MSBuild\\15.0\\Bin"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\MSBuild\ToolsVersions\16.0]
"MSBuildToolsPath"="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\2019\\BuildTools\\MSBuild\\Current\\Bin"
After a Visual Studio 2017 (RC) installation from scratch, I can't find a standard list of templates. I'm specifically interested in the Console Application (C#) template and the Windows Form (C#) template. I'm pretty sure I'm missing one of the Individual Components. I'm not sure which one is supposed to be installed and I don't want to install all of them.
Please see my list with components installed.
You need to install it by launching the installer.
Click the "Workload" tab* in the upper-left, then check top right ".NET-Desktop Development" and hit install. Note it may modify your installation size (bottom-right), and you can install other Workloads, but you must install ".NET-Desktop Development" at least.
*as seen in comments below, users were not able to achieve the equivalent using the "Individual Components" tab.
If you have installed .NET desktop development and still you can't see the templates, then VS is probably getting the templates from your custom templates folder and not installed.
To fix that, copy the installed templates folder to custom.
This is your "installed" folder
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio
14.0\Common7\IDE\ProjectTemplates
This is your "custom" folder
C:\Users[your username]\Documents\Visual
Studio\2017\Templates\ProjectTemplates
Typically this happens when you are at the office and you are running VS as an administrator and visual studio is confused how to merge both of them and if you notice they don't have the same folder structure and folder names.. One is CSHARP and the other C#....
I didn't have the same problem when I installed VS 2017 community edition at home though. This happened when I installed visual studio 2017 "enterprise" edition.
I found the path and wrote it in the options
My personal experience was that I had installed the Team Foundation Server client for 2017 first (was using it as a Proof of Concept for our QA team, while I was still using VS2015), then followed it up with Installing Visual Studio 2017 later to begin development.
What I ended up with on my Start Menu was a Visual Studio 2017 and a Visual Studio 2017 (2). The Visual Studio 2017 (2) had all the templates I was missing. Following the steps found in the First answer to this question (which were clear and easy to follow) did not fix my issue. I had thought that launching the client would upgrade to the Development Client, but it did not. I renamed it to Visual Studio Professional, and now have everything I need. Not sure if this happens to anyone else, but it was what happened to me, so I hope this helps someone.
NOTE: this topic is about installation issues with MS project templates.
I came here via a search in Google, I was looking for a missing Template option in Visual Studio 2017 File menu: in VS-2015, it was Export to Template and I used it to add my own standard Project Items.
Meanwhile, I found an answer.. my issue was not related to default templates and it does not need install things. The option Export to Template has been moved to the VS-2017 Project menu !
I had to reinstall .NET desktop development (throught Workload tab), even button was showing: Modify
After that Visual C# selection appeared :)
(And now i can use Console APP Template)
In my case, I had all of the required features, but I had installed the Team Explorer version (accidentally used the wrong installer) before installing Professional.
When running the Team Explorer version, only the Blank Solution option was available.
The Team Explorer EXE was located in:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\TeamExplorer\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe"
Once I launched the correct EXE, Visual Studio started working as expected.
The Professional EXE was located in:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Professional\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe"
My C++ templates were there all along, it was my C# ones that were missing.
Similar to CSharpie, after trying many modify/re-installs, oddly the following finally worked for me :
- run the installer, but un-select 'Desktop development with C++'.
- allow installer to complete
- run the installer again, and select 'Desktop development with C++'.
- allow installer to complete
In my case, I had all of the required features, but I had installed the Team Explorer version (accidentally used the wrong installer) before installing Professional.
When running the Team Explorer version, only the Blank Solution option was available.
The Team Explorer EXE was located in: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\TeamExplorer\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe"
Once I launched the correct EXE, Visual Studio started working as expected.
The Professional EXE was located in: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Professional\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe"
This solved my issue, and the reason was I had enterprise edition previously installed and then uninstalled and installed the professional edition. Team Explorer was not modified later when I moved to professional from enterprise edition.
After finishing my C# application I had to make an installer. After seeing that the default installer projects are gone, i searched for a replacement.
I found the Visual Studio Installer Projects. I downloaded the file from here: https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/9abe329c-9bba-44a1-be59-0fbf6151054d.
When i restarted Visual Studio, opened my project, clicked "add new project" and here is what I got:
Problem is that I cant find the setup project. I have tried repairing the install. I restarted Visual Studio several times.
My Question:
How can I find the installer project and why it's not working for me.
If I cant make it work, are there any alternatives ? (except InstallShield)
Additional info:
Visual Studio 2013 Community with update 4
Windows 8.1 64-bit
You could try Tools > Extensions and Updates and search for it:
Visual Studio setup projects no longer ship with Visual Studio
However, you can download them here.
Or use a third party library like WiX.
I had the same problem and it turns out that visual studio removed the support for installer projects in 2010.
but still you can download and install it in your version
VS2013
VS2015
VS2017
I installed Visual Studio 2012 and DevExpress 13.1. As Visual Studio started, it generated an error shown by this attached image,
The 'Microsoft.VisualStudio.Editor.Implementation.EditorPackage' package did not load correctly.
The problem may have been caused by a configuration change or by the installation of another extension. You can get more information by examining the file 'C:\Users\must\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\VisualStudio\11.0\ActivityLog.xml'.
Continue to show this error message?
This error also appears in Visual Studio 2017.
I started to see this on a fresh Windows and Visual Studio 2013 Ultimate with Update 2 installation (although others have also reported it on Updates 3 and 4, as well as the Professional version).
To resolve the problem, close all Visual Studio instances, then delete all files in the following folder:
Visual Studio 2013
%localappdata%\Microsoft\VisualStudio\12.0\ComponentModelCache
It worked fine for me. Thanks to this article.
Visual Studio 2015
%localappdata%\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0\ComponentModelCache
Visual Studio 2017
%localappdata%\Microsoft\VisualStudio\15.0_xxxx\ComponentModelCache
Visual Studio 2019
%localappdata%\Microsoft\VisualStudio\16_xxxx\ComponentModelCache
Visual Studio 2022
%localappdata%\Microsoft\VisualStudio\17_xxxx\ComponentModelCache
I encountered this problem in Visual Studio 2017 (15.7.4). After trying various solutions, eventually this worked for me: close all Visual Studio instances, and run this from the command line (possibly with administrator rights):
devenv.exe /clearcache
devenv /updateconfiguration
Close Visual Studio.
Backup and delete the following path:
C:\Users\{your_username}\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\VisualStudio\11.0
Restart Visual Studio as Admin. Otherwise, the Roaming folder can't be repaired by Visual Studio.
Try devenv /setup on the Visual Studio Command Prompt with administrative rights.
I had the same problem with Visual Studio 2013 Ultimate. I tried the solution by Reza posted here, but it didn't work.
Eventually I couldn't close Visual Studio. It was showing a similar dialog when I tried to close, and it wasn't closing. I tried this: Error message "No exports were found that match the constraint contract name". Neither.
I noticed a message in the Team Explorer window saying "Page 'somenumber' cannot be found". I tried that way, and I found this answer: Page '312e8a59-2712-48a1-863e-0ef4e67961fc' not found using Visual Studio 2012. So I run devenv /setup on the Visual Studio Command Prompt with administrative rights.
It did the job, and everything is fine now.
Solution for Visual Studio 2017:
Step 1: open Visual Studio cmd in administrator mode (see start menu item: Developer Command Prompt for VS 2017 - Be sure to use: Run as administrator)
Step 2: change directory to the folder where Visual Studio 2017 is installed, for example:
cd C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Enterprise
(You can copy/paste this command to your cmd prompt. For Visual Studio Professional, the folder will be called "Professional" instead of "Enterprise", etc.)
Step 3: copy/paste the below command
gacutil -if Common7\IDE\PublicAssemblies\Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Interop.8.0.dll
Hit Enter...
It will resolve the issue...
Otherwise, you can also add the following to the GAC as above:
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Interop.9.0.dll
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Interop.10.0.dll
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Interop.11.0.dll
I had a similar problem, and I went to Control Panel → Programs and repaired the Visual Studio installation. It worked for me.
I had the same problem. Try to remember the latest extension that you installed. I delete the latest extension from extensions and updates and restart Visual Studio. and the problem is solved. For me, the extension name is Productivity Power Tools
I had a similar issue (Tizen Project type package did not load correctly) with Visual Studio 2017.
After trying all the answers above, and spending a few hours searching for a solution for the errors inside ActivityLog.XML, nothing worked for me.
Eventually, the solution was a Visual Studio Repair.
I assume that the repair process overrides some configurations that caused the problem.
Repair Visual Studio 2017
Repair Visual Studio 2019
I also experienced this issue after installing Telerik Reporting. I was not able to launch any solution in Visual Studio 2013, nor could I close Visual Studio 2013.
After uninstalling the reporting package and deleting Local / Roaming AppData for Visual Studio 2012, the problem was fixed.
In my case the error message is "The 'IntelliCodeCppPackage' package did not load correctly" (Visual Studio 2019):
I solved this is issue with these steps;
Disable the Visual Studio IntelliCode extension
Restart Visual Studio
Enable that extension again
I tried everything except the repair. I even did an update. This is what fixed it for me:
Open "Developer Command Prompt for VS 2017" as Admin
CD into (your path may vary) CD C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Professional\Common7\IDE\PublicAssemblies
Run command gacutil -i Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Interop.11.0.dll
Restart Visual Studio
Based on this Connect feedback I fixed it by closing all opened documents and restarting Visual Studio. I use Visual Studio 2015.
You need to find file devenv.exe.config in C:\Users\{user_name}\AppData\Local\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0\ and update it. (Or C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\, depending on the location of your devenv.exe file.)
For this particular case, you should find rows that setup redirects for System.Collections.Immutable and change newVersion from 1.1.36.0 to 1.1.37.0.
The original article is How to restore Visual Studio 2015 after the Update 1 (dependency dance).
I had this problem, and projects were not loading correctly or stating that they needed migration. The ActivityLog.xml showed an error with a particular extension. I uninstalled the extension and restarted Visual Studio. That resolved the issue.
I also experienced the same error, "NPM package not installed correctly",
while creating a Node.js project in Visual Studio 2015.
I resolved my issue by performing two steps:
Delete all files present in this location:
C:\Users\<Your User Name>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0\ComponentModelCache
Restart Visual Studio.
Open Visual Studio and go to menu Tools → NuGet Package Manager → Package Manager Settings →
On the left side: You will see a drop down list: select Node.js, Tools → Npm → ClearCache → *OK
Then again try to create the project. It resolved my issue.
I had the pleasure of experiencing this random problem in Visual Studio 2017 Enterprise.
I tried every solution here, and it didn't work, including the Visual Studio repair (which takes a while). Several hours in, I thought maybe I should actually check the ActivityLog.xml file.
I uninstalled the offending extension from the 'Developer Command Prompt for VS2017' as an administrator since Visual Studio just freezed after open and nothing could be clicked.
Steps to uninstall - courtesy of jessehouwing.net
Find the vsix file you used to install the extension.
Open it in your favorite archiver (mine is 7-Zip).
Grab the extension's Id from the Identity node from the extension.vsixmanifest.
Run (in my case) vsixinstaller /u:Microsoft.VisualStudio.LiveShare to remove the extension.
Find the ComponentModelCache folder
Delete Microsoft.VisualStudio.Default.cache
Restart Visual Studio
Enjoy using Visual Studio.
I had a similar problem.
After checking ActivityLog.xml and it said that it could not create an instance for the Extension/package name from a specific folder. I traced that path and I didn't find that folder it is looking for.
So I installed the extension again, I looked for the dll, and copied the containing folder contents to the folder Visual Studio is looking for.
So to recap:
Check if the folder in the error exists
If not, create a new folder with the same name
Look for the dll in the error in the Visual Studio folder, if not found, install the extension again
If the error resists, search inside the Visual Studio folder in Program Files (x86) for the dll and open the containing folder
Copy all the contents
Paste inside the new folder you have created with the name mentioned inside the ActivityLog.xml
Firstable, you need to be sure have the last Microsoft .NET Framework version, in my case, I had the 4.6 version and I have downloaded and updated the .NET Framework 4.8.03761 Developer Pack, from the official site:
https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet-framework/net48
Once I restarted my PC, to continue fixing that, I solved this problem by clearing Visual Studio Component Model Cache.
Just delete or rename this folder:
%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\VisualStudio\11.0\ComponentModelCache
or
%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\VPDExpress\11.0\ComponentModelCache
and restart Visual Studio.
Since this is the top SO result in google for this issue, I'm going to leave my fix here for VS 2022 when experiencing this issue. I found it is commonly caused by an extension issue. In my particular case TypeScript Definition Generator was causing the issue and removing the extension solved it. To find which extension could be causing the issue, run VS with the /Log command line switch.
i.e.: "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe" /Log
After the error occurs, close VS and locate ActivityLog.xml found at %AppData%\Microsoft\VisualStudio\<version>\ActivityLog.xml. Search the log for any extensions reporting an error and uninstall it.
I just wanted to mention that I got a similar error in SQL Server Management Studio 2016, where I basically ignored it. Later, I launched Visual Studio (2015), and this error occurred there as well.
I searched and found the answer here recommending that files be deleted from the
%localappdata%\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0\ComponentModelCache
folder. However, in my case, this folder was empty.
Since I remembered that I saw the error in Management Studio first, I checked, and there was a similar folder at
%localappdata%\Microsoft\SQL Server Management Studio\13.0\ComponentModelCache
This folder was not empty. I closed both Visual Studio and Management Studio, and deleted the files from this folder.
Afterwards, both Management Studio and Visual Studio launched without error.
I had this problem after installing Crystal Reports for Visual Studio. I solved it by closing all Visual Studio instances and reinstalling Crystal Reports.
I solved it:
Go to install
Modify
Go to "Installation location" tab
Check "keep download cache after the installation"
Modify
My issue was Mysql connector net 6.4.4, Nuget, xamarin, VSPackage, EditorPackage and etc.. package did not load correctly.
My solution is below for vs2015
Open AppData location // all the configurations are updating on it.
Backup and Remove the folder in which configuration error is thrown in the visual studio.
forex. If you have Nuget package did not load correctly error - Remove Nuget folder in Local and Roaming directories.
And also clear the data on AppData/Microsoft/visual Studio/14.0 for vs2015
that's it and it worked for me!...
For Visual Studio 2019: I have done the following things to solve the problem
Backup the following Folder. After Taking backup and Delete This Folder C:\Users\munirul2537\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\VisualStudio\16.0_add0ca51
Go to the installation panel of visual studio and do the following things
1.Go to install
2.Modify
3.Go to "Installation location" tab
4. Check "keep download cache after the installation"
5. Modify
For Visual Studio 2017, 2019. I got this error and able to fix it just by enable the Live Share extension from extensions.
see the VS community page for detail.
For others that have a similar problem but with live share.
In the visual studio installer there was a warning that live share was not installed correctly and a modification was pending, that would download live share again.
After completion of the modification the error was resolved.
I had the same problem for Visual Studio 2019 v16.8.6. It was fixed after repair Visual Studio from Visual Studio Installer.
After trying lots of options this worked for me (VS 2019):
Launch Developer Command Prompt for VS 2019 (Run as Administrator)
cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community\Common7\IDE\PublicAssemblies" Replace Community with your specific distribution.
Execute the next line: gacutil -i Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Interop.11.0.dll
One more solution that worked for my colleague after trying all the others that did not work (for Visual Studio 2022).
Try this:
Close all instances of Visual Studio
Go to: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows
You should see a number of vX.0-like directories (e.g. v10.0A for Visual Studio 2022 Enterprise). Back-up and remove all those directories except the one matching your Visual Studio (in my case I'd remove everything except v10.0A).
Start Visual Studio. The "package did not load correctly" warning will be gone.
Rationale:
If you had older versions of Visual Studio installed previously, they will come with their own NETFX Tools which might not uninstall correctly together with those older instances of Visual Studio. The new Visual Studio will for some reason pick the old Tools and fail using them. Removing the redundant directories fixes it.
Can other version of Microsoft Visual Studio be opened with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 C#?
Projects created with previous versions can, and will invoke a project conversion wizard. Projects created with later versions cannot, generally. I found a downgrade utility on, of all places, Mises.org. I didn't write it, and haven't even tried it, so your mileage may vary.
You can open projects created with older releases of Visual Studio 2005, like 2002. A migration assistent will help you to update the project files.
If you're asking if you can run, say, an instance of Visual Studio 2008 next to 2005, then yes. I've done it many times. When you double-click on a .sln file, what actually runs is a little stub program that examines the .sln and decides which is the best version of Visual Studio to launch it in.
If you're asking whether you can open a solution created in VS 2005 in another version of VS, then the only restriction is that it has to be more recent than VS 2005. EG: you can't open a Visual Studio 2008 solution in VS 2005.
Sometimes you can change the version of the solution file manualy. Open it in text editor and manually change the line "Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 11.00" to earlier. Sometimes can help :).