To install MSBuild on a system that doesn't have Visual Studio, go to Build Tools for Visual Studio 2022 on the downloads page. Another way of getting MSBuild is to install the . NET SDK.
Is it possible to build an application on a system if the MSBuild is not installed? If so, How? Yes, it is actually possible because the MSBuild doesn't depend on the Visual Studio of its operations. Users simply need to install the msbuild.exe file for this.
It is installed as part of . NET (Full Framework, not just Client Profile), you don't need SDK.
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: Right clicking on Computer. Click Properties.
If you're looking for msbuild, you'll find that for 4.0 it's at:
For 32-bit:
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\MSBuild.exe
For 64-bit:
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\MSBuild.exe
Perhaps this is the SDK disguised slightly as a Windows 7 SDK.
Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 4
UPDATE: Based off of a blog posts on the Windows SDK Blog the SDK that I linked to above seems to contain msbuild and supports building managed (.NET) applications. I'm assuming this is the SDK we have all been looking for in order to install on our build servers so I'm downloading it now and I'll post any further findings after I check it out.
UPDATE: I can confirm that the link provided above does indeed install MSBuild along with other portions of what would constitute an SDK for .NET 4.0. I'm successfully using this on my build machine now without installing Visual Studio 2010 to build our project.
UPDATE: Please also see FrederikB's answer below as it appears that the whole SDK may not be required to get MSBuild 4.0. This would be especially useful if you need to set up a minimal build server. I haven't confirmed whether this works for me or not but it would be worth a try before installing the SDK.
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