How do I run msbuild from the command line using Windows SDK 7.1?

Question

To enable msbuild in Command Prompt, you simply have to add the directory of the msbuild.exe install on your machine to the PATH environment variable.

You can access the environment variables by:

1. Right clicking on Computer
2. Click Properties
3. Then click Advanced system settings on the left navigation bar
4. On the next dialog box click Environment variables
5. Scroll down to PATH
6. Edit it to include your path to the framework (don't forget a ";" after the last entry in here).

For reference, my path was C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319

Path Updates:

As of MSBuild 12 (2013)/VS 2013/.NET 4.5.1+ and onward MSBuild is now installed as a part of Visual Studio.

For VS2015 the path was %ProgramFiles(x86)%\MSBuild\14.0\Bin

For VS2017 the path was %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\<YOUR_VS_EDITION>\MSBuild\15.0\Bin

For VS2019 the path was %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\<YOUR_VS_EDITION>\MSBuild\Current\Bin

where <YOUR_VS_EDITION> matches the Visual Studio edition that you have installed, i.e., Preview, Community, Professional, Enterprise.

From Visual Studio 2013 onwards, MSbuild comes as a part of Visual Studio. Earlier, MSBuild was installed as a part of. NET Framework.

MSBuild is installed directly under %ProgramFiles%. So, the path for MSBuild might be different depending on the version of Visual Studio.

For Visual Studio 2015, Path of MSBuild is "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\MSBuild\14.0\Bin\MSBuild.exe"

For Visual Studio 15 Preview, Path of MSBuild is "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\MSBuild.exe"

Also, Some new MSBuild properties has been added and some have been modified. For more information look here

Update 1: VS 2017

The location for the MSBuild has changed again with the release of Visual Studio 2017. Now the installation directory is under the %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\[VS Edition]\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\. Since, i have an Enterprise edition, the MSBuild location for my machine is "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Enterprise\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\MSbuild.exe"

Update 2: VS 2019

Path is C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Enterprise\MSBuild\Current\Bin\MsBuild.exe.

Using the "Developer Command Prompt for Visual Studio 20XX" instead of "cmd" will set the path for msbuild automatically without having to add it to your environment variables.

Your bat file could be like:

CD C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319

msbuild C:\Users\mmaratt\Desktop\BladeTortoise\build\ALL_BUILD.vcxproj

PAUSE

EXIT