How do I load the 64-bit Visual Studio Tools Command Prompt?

Question

My development machine is running Windows 7 Ultimate x64. I installed Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate. When I open the Visual Studio Command Prompt (2010), I get the message

Setting environment for using Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 x86 tools.

I have also setup the PowerShell Community Extensions in my Windows PowerShell user profile. And I use the Invoke-BatchFile cmdlet to install the Visual Studio Tools into all my PowerShell sessions

$vcargs = ?: {$Pscx:Is64BitProcess} {'amd64'} {'x86'}
$vcvars = "${env:VS100COMNTOOLS}..\..\VC\vcvarsall.bat"
Invoke-BatchFile $vcvars $vcargs

My vcargs resolves to amd64. I looked in the vcvarsall.bat file for the location of the x64 batch file and got ~dp0bin\amd64\vcvars64.bat. That directory (and file) does not exist.

How do I get the vcvars64.bat file installed properly?

Answer 1

When running in the batch processor, %~dp0 expands to the path where the .bat file is executing. So in the default install for VS2010, that resolves to c:\program files\microsoft visual studio 10.0\vc\bin\amd64\vcvars64.bat. Which is indeed missing, that's a bug they don't seem to be interesting in fixing.

Use "x86_amd64" instead. You'll get the cross compiler, the same one that's used by the IDE.

Answer 2

Install the x64 Components

The problem is an incomplete installation of Visual Studio. I only installed the C# components. I needed to install, at least, the Visual C++ x64 Compilers and Tools.

Adding Components to an Existing Installation

I had problems adding those components to an existing installation. VS2010, especially with SP1 installed, has a ton of bugs around modifying the installation. I encountered some kind of path not found error

1. I uninstalled SP1 first. I needed the VS2010 installation media on hand (unpack to a directory, insert the real disc, or mount to a virtual drive).
2. Then I added the VC++ components to the VS installation
3. Then I was able to reinstall SP1.