Running MSBuild fails to read SDKToolsPath

Question

Howdy  I m having a bit of an issue runnning a NAnt script that used to properly build my  Net 2 0 based website  when compiling with VS2008 and it s associated tools   I ve recently upgraded all the project solution files to VS2010  and now my build fails with the following error       exec    C  Windows Microsoft NET Framework64 v4 0 30319 Microsoft Common targets 2249 9     error MSB3086  Task could not find    sgen exe  using the S dkToolsPath      or the registry key    HKEY LOCAL MACHINE SOFTWARE Microsoft Microsoft   SDKs Windows v7 0A   Make sure the   SdkToolsPath is set and the tool   exists in the correct processor   specific location under the   SdkToolsPath and that the Microsoft   Windows SDK is installed   Now  I DO have prior versions   Net 3 5  of the Windows SDK installed on the build server  and the full  Net 4 0 framework is installed  but I ve not run across a  Net 4 0 specific version of the Windows SDK   After a bit of experimentation and research  I finally just setup a new environmental variable  SDKToolsPath  and pointed it to the copy of sgen exe in my windows 6 0 sdk folder   This generated the same error  but it got me to notice that even though the SDKToolsPath environmental variable IS set  confirmed that I can  echo  it at the command line and it has the expected value   the error message seems to indicated that it s not being read  note the empty quotes      Most of the information I ve found is  Net 3 5  or earlier  specific   Not much 4 0 related out there yet   Searching for error code MSB3086 generated nothing useful either   Any idea what this might be   Scott

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We have a winXP build pc  and use Visual Build Pro 6 to build our software  since some of our developers use VS 2010 the project files now contain reference to  tool version 4 0  and from what I can tell  this tells Visual Build it needs to find a sdk7 x somewhere  even though we only build for  NET 3 5  This caused it not to find lc exe  I tried to fool it by pointing all the macros to the 6 0A sdk that came with VS2008 which is installed on the pc  but that did not work   I eventually got it working by downloading and installing sdk 7 1  I then created a registry key for 7 0A and pointed the install path to the install path of the 7 1 sdk  now it happily finds a compatible  lc exe  and all the code compiles fine  I have a feeling I will now also be able to compile  NET 4 0 code even though VS2010 is not installed  but I have not tried that yet

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First make sure that you are already download dotNetFx40 Full x86 x64 exe and installed It s commonly bind with Visual Stdio    Then quickly set a new Environment Variables at System variables  like below    TargetFrameworkSDKToolsDirectory   C  Program Files  x86  Microsoft SDKs Windows vxx 0A bin NETFX 4 6 1 Tools    note the path   vxx 0A   is a variable indicating your version  it s   v10 0A   for me

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I manually pass the variables to MSBuild on build server   msbuild exe MyProject csproj   p TargetFrameworkSDKToolsDirectory C  Program Files  x86  Microsoft SDKs Windows v10 0A bin NETFX 4 6 1 Tools    p AspnetMergePath C  Program Files  x86  Microsoft SDKs Windows v10 0A bin NETFX 4 6 1 Tools

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ToolsVersion  4 0  does it for me in my MSBuild project    lt Project DefaultTargets  Do  ToolsVersion  4 0  xmlns  http   schemas microsoft com developer msbuild 2003  gt

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I  too  encountered this problem while trying to build a plugin using Visual Studio 2017 on my horribly messed-up workplace computer   If you search the internet for  unable to find resgen exe   you can find all this advice that s like  just use regedit to edit your Windows Registry and make a new key here and copy-and-paste the contents of this folder into this other folder  blah blah blah     I spent weeks just messing up my Windows Registry with regedit  probably added a dozen sub-keys and copy-pasted ResGen exe into many different directories  sometimes putting it in a  bin  folder  sometimes just keeping it in the main folder  etc   In the end  I realized   Hey  if Visual Studio gave a more detailed error message  none of this would be a problem    So  in order to get more details on the error  I ran MSBuild exe directly on my   csproj file from the command line     C  Windows Microsoft NET Framework v4 0 3 0319 MSBuild exe C  Users Todd Plugin csproj -fl -flp logfile  C  Users Todd Desktop error log log  verbosity diagnostic    Of course  you ll have to change the path details to fit your situation  but be sure to put 1  the complete path to MSBuild exe 2  the complete path to your   csproj file 3  the -fl -flp logfile  part  which will tell MSBuild to create a log file of each step it took in the process  4  the location you would like the   log file to be saved and 5   verbosity diagnostic  which basically just tells MSBuild to include TONS of details in the   log file   After you do this  the build will fail as always  but you will be left with a   log file showing exactly where MSBuild looked for your ResGen exe file   In my case  near the bottom of the   log file  I found   Compiling plug-in resources  Task ID 41  Looking in key SOFTWARE WOW6432Node Microsoft Microsoft SDKs NETFXSDK 4 6 2 WinSDK-NetFx40Tools-x86  Task ID 41  Looking in key SOFTWARE WOW6432Node Microsoft Microsoft SDKs NETFXSDK 4 6 1 WinSDK-NetFx40Tools-x86  Task ID 41  Looking in key SOFTWARE WOW6432Node Microsoft Microsoft SDKs NETFXSDK 4 6 WinSDK-NetFx40Tools-x86  Task ID 41  Looking in key SOFTWARE WOW6432Node Microsoft Microsoft SDKs Windows v8 1a WinSDK-NetFx40Tools-x86  Task ID 41  Looking in key SOFTWARE WOW6432Node Microsoft Microsoft SDKs Windows v8 0a WinSDK-NetFx40Tools-x86  Task ID 41  MSBUILD  error   Failed to locate ResGen exe and unable to compile plug-in resource file  C  Users Todd PluginResources resx    So basically  MSBuild looked in five separate directories for ResGen exe  then gave up   This is the kind of detail you just can t get from the Visual Studio error message  and it solves the problem  simply use regedit to create a key for any one of those five locations  and put the value  InstallationFolder  in the key  which should point to the folder in which your ResGen exe resides  in my case it was  C  Program Files Microsoft SDKs Windows v10 0A bin NETFX 4 7 2 Tools     If you re a humanities major like myself with no background in computers  you may be tempted to just edit the heck out of your Windows Registry and copy-paste ResGen exe all over the place when faced with an error like this  which is of course  bad practice    It s better to follow the procedure outlined above  1  Run MSBuild exe directly on your   csproj file to find out the exact location MSBuild is looking for ResGen exe then 2  edit your Windows Registry precisely so that MSBuild can find ResGen exe

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You don t actually have SDK version 7 0A installed   That s a problem you ll need to fix   Look in the VS2010 install log files to see what went wrong   The SDK should be present in c  program files microsoft sdks windows 7 0a and the listed registry key must be present as well   Running with the 6 0a version of sgen exe isn t okay  it is bound to use the wrong compiler

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Simply pass GenerateSerializationAssemblies parameter with value Off to your MsBuild   msbuild exe  p GenerateSerializationAssemblies Off

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One of your projects use sgen exe  Server Generator  to generate web service  you need install SDKs to Build Server or remove Web Service references from the project

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Besides the registry mods  you may need to change version of the  net sdk your settings set to in Visual Studio   I was having this problem and decided to check the project debug settings   Project    Toolbar Properties    Debug  Advance Compile Options button  The Target Framework  all configurations  was set to 3 0 which is not on my system   I changed that to 4 0  then had to restart the project and  Visual Studio 2010   The project then built without errors and ran

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I had the same issue on a brand new Windows 10 machine  My setup    Windows 10 Visual Studio 2015 Installed Windows 10 SDK   But I couldn t build  NET 4 0 projects   Die Aufgabe konnte  AL exe  mit dem SdkToolsPath-Wert    oder dem Registrierungsschl  ssel  HKEY LOCAL MACHINE SOFTWARE Microsoft Microsoft SDKs Windows v8 0A WinSDK-NetFx40Tools-x86  Solution  After trying  and failing  to install the Windows 7 SDK  because thats also includes the  NET 4 0 SDK  I needed to install the Windows 8 SDK and make sure the   NET Framework 4 5 SDK  is installed   It s crazy    but worked

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I had this same issue and had installed Windows SDK 7 0 and Windows SDK 7 1 which neither fixed the issue  The cause of the problem for me was that the offending class library was built with Target Framework of  NET Framework 2 0    I changed it to  NET Framework 4 0 and worked locally and when checked in the Build server built it successfully

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I fixed it by passing this as command-line parameter to msbuild exe    Your mileage will vary depending on the SDK version you have on your system   p TargetFrameworkSDKToolsDirectory  C  Program Files  x86  Microsoft SDKs Windows v10 0A bin NETFX 4 6 Tools

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Short answer  In the  csproj file  there is a way to specify the path to sgen exe  using SGenToolPath    lt Project DefaultTargets  Build  xmlns  http   schemas microsoft com developer msbuild 2003  ToolsVersion  14 0  gt     lt PropertyGroup gt       lt SGenToolPath gt C  Program Files  x86  Microsoft SDKs Windows v10 0A bin NETFX 4 6 Tools lt  SGenToolPath gt     lt  PropertyGroup gt    Your path may be different  but SGenToolPath is what you want    For a list of other common MSBuild Project properties  see   https   msdn microsoft com en-us library bb629394 aspx   We ended up using this SGenToolPath setting in the  csproj file  instead of editing the registry values on the build server  Editing the registry values on my local machine had worked as well  but was a bit more complicated and we didn t want to mess with the registry on the build server   For the registry  In that case the problem was that the SDK40ToolsPath s  under HKLM SOFTWARE Wow6432Node Microsoft MSBuild  were pointing to a registry value   Registry HKEY LOCAL MACHINE SOFTWARE Microsoft Microsoft SDKs Windows v8 0A WinSDK-NetFx40Tools-x86 InstallationFolder  which did not exist  I just replaced that with the actual path directly

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I ve run into the same error but in a different situation  using VS 2010 Express and trying to use Simmo s answer to explicitly set the SDK version - however WindowsSdkVer exe  version setter tool  seems to not target Express  understandable since it s limited       I m using VS 2010 Express on Win 7 Prof  and it always wants to use v7 0A of the Win SDK  which does not have all the needed exes   and it deosn t matter which version I explicitly set as current using WindowsSdkVer exe  It keeps reporting it set the current version of the SDK but for VS 2008 although though I only have 2010 Ex installed      So my cheap workaround was to install v7 0 WIN SDK  or another version like v7 1  and then rename its file system folder to v7 0A - basically I just lied to VS 2010 Express but it works now

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I had a similar issue  notably msbuild fails  MSB3086  MSB3091   quot AL exe quot    quot resgen exe quot  not found  On a 64 bits Windows 7 machine  I installed  Net framework 4 5 1 and Windows SDK for Windows 8 1   Although the setups for the SDK sayd that it was up to date  probably it was not  I solved the issue by removing all installed versions of SDK  then installing the following  in this order   http   www microsoft com en-us download details aspx id 3138  http   www microsoft com en-us download details aspx id 8279  http   msdn microsoft com en-us windows desktop hh852363 aspx  http   msdn microsoft com en-us windows desktop aa904949 aspx

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CMD wrapper I have tried all the stuff from here and even more  Nothing helped me   I applied a CMD wrappers for MSBuild and DevEnv com  Main idea inside of such a wrapper is to make a prepared environment by calling Command Prompts from Visual Studio supply  And then pass the standard input parameters to a call of MSBuild or DevEnv com   Anyway  on my build-server now I can build projects from different Visual Studio versions   How to use I had to substitute calls to MSBuild and DevEnv by a call to my batch file wrappers  And I didn t change any input parameters  As an example for my MSBuild wrapper call   MsBuild Wrapper bat MySolution sln  target Build  property Configuration Release   Ready solution In fact  I got much more troubles with a migration from VS 2010 to VS 2015  But this one was the first and the toughest  So  my modest rescue recipe for a Build Server is here  Possibly it is difficult to understand all this CMD style there from a first moment but any logic is obvious  I hope    Hints There are MSBuild Command Prompt for Visual Studio and Developer Command Prompt for Visual Studio I use them appropriately for MSBuild and DevEnv com  But probably the MSBuild Command Prompt will be enough   For VS 2015 those command prompts are here C  Program Files  x86  Microsoft Visual Studio 14 0 Common7 Tools   Or look through the Windows programs menu   To pass all input parameters to MSBuild or DevEnv inside a batch file I used CALL MSBuild

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try using visual studio s  repair   It worked for me

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I just had this error with a  sln file that was originally created in Visual Studio 2010  and being built by Visual Studio 2010 and TFS 2010   I had modified the solution file to NOT build a project that was not supposed to be built in a particular configuration and visual studio changed the header of the solution file from    Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File  Format Version 11 00   Visual Studio 2010   To   Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File  Format Version 12 00   Visual Studio 14 VisualStudioVersion   14 0 24720 0 MinimumVisualStudioVersion   10 0 40219 1   Setting it back to the original 2010 version fixed my problem  I guess backwards compatibility in Visual Studio has still not been perfected

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I agree with IanS s answer  No need to install new SDK  Just make sure the registry key values SDK35ToolsPath and SDK40ToolPath for MSBuild are pointing to correct registry key values    In my case my project was targeted for  NET 3 5 and I had to set SDK35ToolsPath for key HKEY LOCAL MACHINE SOFTWARE Microsoft MSBuild ToolsVersions 4 0 to   Registry HKEY LOCAL MACHINE SOFTWARE Microsoft Microsoft SDKs Windows v6 0A WinSDKNetFxTools InstallationFolder   And everything worked

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I had to bite the bullet and install VS 2010 on our build server to fix this issue  As far as I can see  there s no 7 0A version of the Windows SDK available anywhere on MSDN  However  installing VS 2010 appears to install it  creating a 7 0A regkey and a 7 0A folder in Program Files Microsoft SDKs Windows

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I couldn t face putting Visual Studio on the build server   The SDK v7 0A is the SDK installed with Visual Studio 2010  The A indicates this is a VS release   Since then  a newer version has been released  Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 and  NET Framework AKA v7 1   I ve installed this on my build server  And then via the Windows SDK 7 1 Command Prompt  Start    All Programs    Microsoft Windows SDK 7 1   I set the default version of the SDK to be 7 1   Steps   cd Setup  WindowsSdkVer exe -version v7 1   Edit to include LordHits  comment  one doesn t need to install the entire SDK  Installing just the   NET Development Intellisense and Reference Assemblies  and   NET Development Tools  options is enough

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I encountered a similar issue just recently on our build server   I copied the 7 0A folder  C  Program Files Microsoft SDKs Windows 7 0A  from my computer  which has VS2010 installed  on it to the build server in the same location   After create the following registry key  HKEY LOCAL MACHINE SOFTWARE Microsoft Microsoft SDKs Windows v7 0A   Set InstallationFolder to C  Program Files Microsoft SDKs Windows 7 0A   You can also reference the registry on your machine with VS2010 already installed on it if you are confused about what to do with the registry on the build server

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I suspect the targets file is overriding the tools path  I had a quick look in this file and is sets the SDKToolsPath to  TargetFrameworkSDKToolsDirectory under some of the targets in there  I don t think you should need to set these in the environment anyway  but they may need fixing in your project files   Note that according to this page http   nant sourceforge net  Nant does not support  Net 4 0  could this be the real problem   Sorry  I know this doesn t really answer your question

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Set Sdk40ToolsPath rather than SdkToolsPath to specify a location other than the install directory   I hit a similar problem with AL exe because I had just xcopied the tools onto the build machine rather than installing the SDK  so the usual registry keys were missing  I ran a build with diagnostic output   verbosity diagnostic  and noticed that there were several SDK tools paths defined  Sdk40ToolsPath  Sdk35ToolsPath and SdkToolsPath  Setting Sdk40ToolsPath to point to the appropriate SDK version s bin folder solved the problem for me

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I had a similar problem  I had done a project using Visual Studio 2010 and then got the above error when i compiled it using Visual Studio 2012  I simple copied all the contents of C  Program Files  x86  Microsoft SDKs Windows v7 0A into C  Program Files  x86  Microsoft SDKs Windows v8 0A and that solved my problem

[.net] Running MSBuild fails to read SDKToolsPath

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