Building Compact Framework applications with VS2010 (without VS2005)

Question

I want to perform a .NET CF 2.0 build using VS2010. I know it's not supported "normnally," but I've seen this answer: ( .NET Compact Framework with Visual Studio 2010? ) ...and I want to use that approach.

The blog post cited there says I need to modify the .csproj files for the .NET CF projects, to point to a particular Microsoft.CompactFramework.Common.targets . But I don't have that file.

I figured I needed to install the Windows Mobile 6 Standard SDK to get it.
I tried installing it and get this:

I have seen this question:
Windows Mobile 6 Standard SDK Refresh install issue on Visual Studio 2010 Professional Beta 2

I don't think the solution proposed there is workable for me. I do not have VS2008. I do not have VS2005. I have only VS2010, and I have no installable media for those other products.

I have also tried the administrative install (msiexec /a), but the resulting directory structure doesn't contain any files like Microsoft.CompactFramework.Common.targets .??

Q1: Is there a way for me to install WM6 Standard SDK?

Q2: Anyone know the reg key that it looks for to determine if I have the appropriate pre-reqs? Is this going to work if I just fiddle with my registry?

Q3: Is my assumption wrong? Really I want the Microsoft.CompactFramework.Common.targets file and its friends. Where can I get this? (I have no existing VS2008 machine to suck from)

Q4: Another approach I can think of is getting an eval version of VS2008, installing that into a VM, then installing the WM6 Std SDK there, then grabbing the Microsoft.CompactFramework.Common.targets file from that. Long way round. Is this gonna work and is it worth the trouble?

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ANSWER

Here's the answer.

It is possible to build CF apps with VS2010, as outlined in Joel Fjorden's blog post. There are pre-requisites you need, in order to make this happen.

I believe the only official way to get the required files, including Microsoft.CompactFramework.Common.targets , Microsoft.CompactFramework.CSharp.targets , Microsoft.CompactFramework.VisualBasic.targets and Microsoft.CompactFramework.Build.Tasks.dll , is to install the related version of Visual Studio. These files are all version-specific, so to get the files for building for .NET CF 2.0, you need to install VS2005, and for .NET CF 3.5 you need to install VS2008. Installing VS2010 gives you neither. It works to use eval versions of the tools. It worked for me anyway.

If you are willing to go custom, you can simply copy these files from a working installation of VS2005 or VS2008 (or both), into the appropriate .NET directory, usually something like C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727 (change the version as appropriate). Chris Tacke has helpfully posted a link to the files you need. I don't know if copying these files violates the license for VS20?? , I am not a licensing expert.

You cannot get these files from the Windows Mobile SDK, as far as I can tell. Even so, you might still want a version-specific mobile SDK to get the emulators and skins and so on.

This is a basic "build" capability. It works but it doesn't give you designer support, debugging capability, built-in project templates, and so on. My advice to anyone who wants to do forward development on .NET CF is to use the tools that are geared toward those tasks - VS2005 or VS2008.

Thanks to Chris Tacke for posting a link for the files.

Answer 1

Not sure if it's any help, but the CF targets files from VS2008 can be found here. Let us know if you make any progress.

Answer 2

The "Power Toys for .NET Compact Framework" package (currently found at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=13442) also contains the required files.

Thought I'd leave that here since it's an official Microsoft download.