[c++] Visual Studio debugger error: Unable to start program Specified file cannot be found

I have a solution in C:\full path here\VS2010\blender.sln

This solution contains many projects(around 100). When I compile them, they all work fine. I can run them without any problem, and (quite) everything works (there are some bugs). One of the projects is ALL_BUILD, but it gives the same error if I try to debug INSTALL(another project). I'm compiling with RELWithDebInfo as configuration, and if I execute the program manually it works. It is outputted in C:\full path here\VS2010\bin\RelWithDebInfo

But if I try to run the compiler, it says

"Unable to start program C:\full path here\VS2010\RelWithDebInfo\ALL_BUILD Specified file cannot be found"

I tried to copy the compiled program into the path required by VS, but it raised the same error.

What should I do to solve this? Right now I set up cmake to generate also a mingw project and I compile it and debug it with gdb, but this is a really a slow and impractical workflow, and I would like to use the VS debugger.

I must say that if I compile with Debug as configuration, the program doesn't even start.

I'm using VS2010 Express on Win7 64bit

(This is a big open source program, so I don't know exactly whatever it does)

I think that what you have to check is:

1. if the target EXE is correctly configured in the project settings ("command", in the debugging tab). Since all individual projects run when you start debugging it's well possible that only the debugging target for the "ALL" solution is missing, check which project is currently active (you can also select the debugger target by changing the active project).

2. dependencies (DLLs) are also located at the target debugee directory or can be loaded (you can use the "depends.exe" tool for checking dependencies of an executable or DLL).

I had the same problem :) Verify the "Source code" folder on the "Solution Explorer", if it doesn't contain any "source code" file then :

Right click on "Source code" > Add > Existing Item > Choose the file You want to build and run.

Good luck ;)