Visual Studio 2012 failing to detect Visual Studio 2008 build tools

Question

I am trying to use Visual Studio 2012 to build a C++ CLI application targeting .NET 3.5.

I've already gotten this working on one machine, by installing Visual Studio 2008, and specifying the v90 platform toolset.

Now I am attempting this on a new machine, and I've installed Visual Studio 2008, then Visual Studio 2012.

Now I get this incredibly frustrating error:

Error 81 error MSB8020: The builds tools for Visual Studio 2008 (Platform Toolset = 'v90') cannot be found. To build using the v90 build tools, either click the Project menu or right-click the solution, and then select "Update VC++ Projects...". Install Visual Studio 2008 to build using the Visual Studio 2008 build tools. C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V110\Microsoft.Cpp.Platform.targets 43 5 WinApiWrapper (Visual Studio 2008)

Why WOULDN'T Visual Studio 2012 be able to find Visual Studio 2008. Is there any way I can help it?

Answer 1

It turns out that you ALSO have to install Visual Studio 2010.

Once I installed Visual Studio 2010, Visual Studio 2012 was able to detect the Visual Studio 2008 build tools.

It seems absolutely crazy, but there you go.

Answer 2

I ran into the exact same problem but I Installed Windows SDK 7.1 instead (or the web installer version) and that made it work also.

I remember I've installed it also to the original computer.

Remember you should uninstall first any version of Visual C++ 2010 redistributable, otherwise Windows SDK setup will fail.

I know it's not the perfect solution because Windows SDK is huge, but it's another option.

Answer 3

Before downloading anything try going to project properties -> configuration properties -> general then change the platform Toolset for the project to Visual Studio 2012 (v110)

Answer 4

As per The build tools for Visual Studio 2008 (Platform Toolset = 'v90') cannot be found,

In addition to an MSVC 9.0 toolchain which is present in VS 2008 _{(do install VS 2008 SP1, or x64 compilers will be broken)}, you also need MsBuild 4.0 platform configuration files for this toolchain so that MsBuild can find it.

They are discreetly present in Visual Studio 2010, in the C++ x86 and x64 features, in addition to its own toolchain. They are NOT present in standalone SDK packages like WinSDK 7.1.