MSBuild does not contain a value for the “VCTargetsPath” property

Question

I recently installed the Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview to try it out, and now my VS 2010 projects won\'t open. Instead, I get the following error message:

Answer 1

For those who are here by google search :

If you had previously installed VS 2015 or any later versions of vs after vs2010, and then uninstalled, Here is the solution for you.

In the error message below :

Cannot evaluate the property expression "$([MSBuild]::ValueOrDefault('$(VCTargetsPath)','$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V140\'))"

14.0 is the version number of VS2015. Unfortunately, the VS2015/2012 uninstaller forgets one of its registry keys, which then causes that error when you go back to VS2010.

Go to start/run/ regedit >

Look for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSBuild\ToolsVersions\14.0 (12.0 as well)

And

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\MSBuild\ToolsVersions\14.0 (12.0 as well )

If there is a key 14.0/12.0 here, delete it and your VS2010 will hopefully work again.