MBCS Error building MFC C++ project with Visual Studio

Question

I opened my existing MFC project using Visual Studio and when I build I get the following error message:

Error 1 error MSB8031: Use of MBCS encoding in MFC p         


        

Answer 1

This error message is due to the missing MBCS MFC package. Starting with Visual Studio 2013, MBCS portion of the MFC library has been broken out of the Visual Studio product into its own separate download. Installing this package and rebuilding should fix the problem.

• The download is available here
• More information about this change is available here

Update for Visual Studio 2015

Starting with Visual Studio 2015, the entire MFC C++ library (including the MBCS pieces) is an optional install component. While installing VS2015, if you select C++ and MFC, you will also get the MBCS library.