Building Visual Studio 2015 C++ project (v140) by MSBuild Failed - v140 cannot be found

Question

I have Visual Studio 2013 and 2015 installed side by side. I have just upgraded the combined solution (C#, C++, C++/CLI) to 2015 and set Platform Toolset to v140.

The build from Visual Studio works fine, but it cannot be compiled from MSBuild. I use MSBuild 14 and MSBuild complains that is unable to find v140, but it is nonsense, because v140 is installed on the computer in "c:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V140".

The advice about upgrading the solution cannot be done, because the solution is already upgraded and there is no such item in solution context menu.

If I switch Platform tools of the project to v120, it works.

Details:

c:\git\hewerMaster>"c:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\14.0\Bin\MSBuild.exe"  c:\git
\hewerMaster\Hewer.sln /property:Configuration=Debug /property:Platform=x86
Microsoft (R) Build Engine version 14.0.23107.0
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Building the projects in this solution one at a time. To enable parallel build,
please add the "/m" switch.
Build started 9/12/2015 4:00:25 PM.
Project "c:\git\hewerMaster\Hewer.sln" on node 1 (default targets).
ValidateSolutionConfiguration:
  Building solution configuration "Debug|x86".
ValidateProjects:
  The project "HewerDotNetWrapper" is not selected for building in solution con
  figuration "Debug|x86".
  The project "VisualHewer" is not selected for building in solution configurat
  ion "Debug|x86".
  The project "UnitTestWrapper" is not selected for building in solution config
  uration "Debug|x86".
  The project "ParamsFormatConverter" is not selected for building in solution
  configuration "Debug|x86".
  The project "UnitTestGenerator" is not selected for building in solution conf
  iguration "Debug|x86".
  The project "HewerUnitTestDotNet" is not selected for building in solution co
  nfiguration "Debug|x86".
Project "c:\git\hewerMaster\Hewer.sln" (1) is building "c:\git\hewerMaster\Hewe
rRedirect\HewerRedirect.csproj" (2) on node 1 (default targets).
CoreCompile:
Skipping target "CoreCompile" because all output files are up-to-date with resp
ect to the input files.
_CopyAppConfigFile:
Skipping target "_CopyAppConfigFile" because all output files are up-to-date wi
th respect to the input files.
CopyFilesToOutputDirectory:
  HewerRedirect -> c:\git\hewerMaster\anyCPU\Debug\pbrain-hewer.exe
Done Building Project "c:\git\hewerMaster\HewerRedirect\HewerRedirect.csproj" (
default targets).

Project "c:\git\hewerMaster\Hewer.sln" (1) is building "c:\git\hewerMaster\Hewe
r\Hewer.vcxproj" (3) on node 1 (default targets).
C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V120\Microsoft.Cpp.Platform.t
argets(64,5): error MSB8020: The build tools for v140 (Platform Toolset = 'v140
') cannot be found. To build using the v140 build tools, please install v140 bu
ild tools.  Alternatively, you may upgrade to the current Visual Studio tools b
y selecting the Project menu or right-click the solution, and then selecting "U
pgrade Solution...". [c:\git\hewerMaster\Hewer\Hewer.vcxproj]
Done Building Project "c:\git\hewerMaster\Hewer\Hewer.vcxproj" (default targets
) -- FAILED.

Done Building Project "c:\git\hewerMaster\Hewer.sln" (default targets) -- FAILE
D.


Build FAILED.

UPDATE:

• There are some project being skipped form Debug X86. This is intentional.
• The project have been originally created in VS2008, then upgraded to VS2013, then upgraded to VS2015.
• There are two Visual Studios installed on this computer (2013 Community and 2015 Community). 2013 was installed first, 2015 later.

The registry settings looks like:

UPDATE2: Minimal, Complete, and Verifiable example

I have created empty C++ Console Application in Visual Studio 2015:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/53387801/ConsoleApplication_v140.zip

#include "stdafx.h"

int main()
{
    return 0;
}

I can build it in Visual Studio, but I face the same issue in MSBuild:

c:\>"c:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\14.0\Bin\MSBuild" "C:\temp\vs2015_simplest\C
onsoleApplication1\consoleApplication1.sln"
Microsoft (R) Build Engine version 14.0.23107.0
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Building the projects in this solution one at a time. To enable parallel build,
please add the "/m" switch.
Build started 9/16/2015 10:16:20 AM.
Project "C:\temp\vs2015_simplest\ConsoleApplication1\consoleApplication1.sln" o
n node 1 (default targets).
ValidateSolutionConfiguration:
  Building solution configuration "Debug|x64".
Project "C:\temp\vs2015_simplest\ConsoleApplication1\consoleApplication1.sln" (
1) is building "C:\temp\vs2015_simplest\ConsoleApplication1\ConsoleApplication1
\ConsoleApplication1.vcxproj" (2) on node 1 (default targets).
C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V120\Microsoft.Cpp.Platform.t
argets(64,5): error MSB8020: The build tools for v140 (Platform Toolset = 'v140
') cannot be found. To build using the v140 build tools, please install v140 bu
ild tools.  Alternatively, you may upgrade to the current Visual Studio tools b
y selecting the Project menu or right-click the solution, and then selecting "U
pgrade Solution...". [C:\temp\vs2015_simplest\ConsoleApplication1\ConsoleApplic
ation1\ConsoleApplication1.vcxproj]
Done Building Project "C:\temp\vs2015_simplest\ConsoleApplication1\ConsoleAppli
cation1\ConsoleApplication1.vcxproj" (default targets) -- FAILED.

Done Building Project "C:\temp\vs2015_simplest\ConsoleApplication1\consoleAppli
cation1.sln" (default targets) -- FAILED.


Build FAILED.

"C:\temp\vs2015_simplest\ConsoleApplication1\consoleApplication1.sln" (default
target) (1) ->
"C:\temp\vs2015_simplest\ConsoleApplication1\ConsoleApplication1\ConsoleApplica
tion1.vcxproj" (default target) (2) ->
(PlatformPrepareForBuild target) ->
  C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V120\Microsoft.Cpp.Platform
.targets(64,5): error MSB8020: The build tools for v140 (Platform Toolset = 'v1
40') cannot be found. To build using the v140 build tools, please install v140
build tools.  Alternatively, you may upgrade to the current Visual Studio tools
 by selecting the Project menu or right-click the solution, and then selecting
"Upgrade Solution...". [C:\temp\vs2015_simplest\ConsoleApplication1\ConsoleAppl
ication1\ConsoleApplication1.vcxproj]

    0 Warning(s)
    1 Error(s)

Time Elapsed 00:00:00.14

c:\>

SOLVED:

Environment variable VisualStudioVersion was set to 12.0 instead of 14.0 Changing the value to 14.0 solved the issue.

The simple console application started to work immediately after the Environment variable VisualStudioVersion changed and after windows logout, login.

The original project still couldn't be build after changing environment variable VisualStudioVersion. A retarget solution context menu appeared in Visual Studio 2015. So I retarget the solution. After retargeting the solution still couldn't be compiled (v140 not found). Finally I changed the platform toolset from v140 (not installed) to Visual Studio 2015 (v140). Now the solution can be compiled from Visual Studio and MSBuild as well.

Answer 1

Your problem is that you set the environment variable VisualStudioVersion to 12.0. This tells MSBuild to use the Visual Studio 2013 (V120) tools, which don't support the Visual Studio 2015 (V140) build tools. If you unset this environment variable, or pass the /p:VisualStudioVersion=14.0 option to MSBuild your project, should build. (Or at least get past this error).

You can find more information about the VisualStudioVersion variable in a MSDN blog entry titled Visual Studio project compatibility and VisualStudioVersion.

Answer 2

One solution is that you can simply change the platform toolset that is available in your system. Then it build fine.