error cannot open file 'kernel32.lib'

Question

I have installed VS2013 and VS2015 on Windows 7.

I have an existing C++ Dll project that was building fine but now all of a sudden it wont build using VS2015 and giv

Answer 1

If the cause is some plug-in/extension that changes your props files, it may in consequence change the "Visual C++ Directories" settings of your project.

So, the solution that worked for me is described on my own answer Can't compile 64 bits Visual Studio 2010 projects, which I fully transcribe to here:

After I asked a colleague for help, we noticed, that even getting clean builds of the projects from TFS, with overwrite option, the Project's Configuration Properties > VC++ Directories on my computer were always different from other computers.

Searching more we found the solution on the last post of Reset include/lib path, which I will fully transcribe:

use "del %HOMEPATH%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\MSBuild\v4.0\Microsoft.Cpp.Win32.user.props" is not always the right way. Better use "del %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\MSBuild\v4.0\Microsoft.Cpp.Win32.user.props" where the application data folder is normally placed in.

Then I've looked inside the contents of Microsoft.Cpp.x64.user.props and I've seen that there were things added by Visual Leaks Detector. Which is reasonable, as one month before, I did a memory leak analysis using VLD.

So, I deleted the file and now everything compiles fine at 64bits!