.NET Core publish error: "Unable to find msdeploy.exe, please install it and try again"

Question

When I attempt to publish a .NET Core project to the file system in Visual Studio 2015, I get this error:

"Unable to find msdeploy.exe, please install it and try again"

Answer 1

Download and install Web Deploy v3.6 (or higher) from Microsoft.

This command in the deployment script needs to be able to find msdeploy.exe:

Executing command ["C:\Program Files (x86)\IIS\Microsoft Web Deploy V3\msdeploy.exe" -source:manifest=...]

Ensure that the .exe is in your path (you may have to restart Visual Studio to get it to pick up the new path).