The system cannot find the file specified in Visual Studio

Question

I keep getting this error with these lines of code   include  lt iostream gt   int main                  cout  lt  lt   Hello World   gt  gt           system  pause            return 0           The system cannot find the file specified

User · Accepted Answer

The system cannot find the file specified usually means the build failed (which it will for your code as you're missing a # infront of include, you have a stray >> at the end of your cout line and you need std:: infront of cout) but you have the 'run anyway' option checked which means it runs an executable that doesn't exist. Hit F7 to just do a build and make sure it says '0 errors' before you try running it.

Code which builds and runs:

#include <iostream>

int main()
{
   std::cout << "Hello World";
   system("pause");
   return 0;
}

User · Answer

Another take on this that hasn t been mentioned here is that  when in debug  the project may build  but it won t run  giving the error message displayed in the question   If this is the case  another option to look at is the output file versus the target file  These should match   A quick way to check the output file is to go to the project s property pages  then go to Configuration Properties -  Linker -  General  In VS 2013 - exact path may vary depending on IDE version    There is an  Output File  setting  If it is not   OutDir   TargetName   TargetExt   then you may run into issues   This is also discussed in more detail here

User · Answer

This is because you have not compiled it  Click  Project   compile   Then  either click  start debugging   or  start without debugging

User · Answer

I had a same problem and this fixed it   You should add   C  Program Files  x86  Microsoft SDKs Windows v7 1A Lib x64    for 64 bit system  C  Program Files  x86  Microsoft SDKs Windows v7 1A Lib        for 32 bit system   in Property Manager Linker General Additional Library Directories

User · Answer

Oh my days     Feel so embarrassed but it is my first day on the C     I was getting the error because of two things    I opened an empty project I didn t add  include  stdafx h    It ran successfully on the win 32 console

User · Answer

I resolved this issue after deleting folder where I was trying to add the file in Visual Studio  Deleted folder from window explorer also  After doing all this  successfully able to add folder and file

User · Answer

The code should be     include  lt iostream gt  using namespace std   int main         cout  lt  lt   Hello World       return 0      Or maybe     include  lt iostream gt   int main         std  cout  lt  lt   Hello World       return 0      Just a quick note  I have deleted the system command  because I heard it s not a good practice to use it   but of course  you can add it for this kind of program

[c++] The system cannot find the file specified. in Visual Studio

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