VCTargetsPath is wrong when building with MSBuild

Question

In my C++ project, Test.wcxproj, I have the following configurations defined:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project DefaultTargets="Build" ToolsVersion="12.0"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<ItemGroup Label="ProjectConfigurations">
    <ProjectConfiguration Include="Debug|Win32">
      <Configuration>Debug</Configuration>
      <Platform>Win32</Platform>
    </ProjectConfiguration>
    <ProjectConfiguration Include="Debug|x64">
      <Configuration>Debug</Configuration>
      <Platform>x64</Platform>
    </ProjectConfiguration>
    <ProjectConfiguration Include="Release|Win32">
      <Configuration>Release</Configuration>
      <Platform>Win32</Platform>
    </ProjectConfiguration>
    <ProjectConfiguration Include="Release|x64">
      <Configuration>Release</Configuration>
      <Platform>x64</Platform>
    </ProjectConfiguration>
  </ItemGroup>

Then I have the problematic import of the default C++ properties:

<Import Project="$(VCTargetsPath)\Microsoft.Cpp.Default.props" />

When my build server builds my MSBuild project file (configuration is Release and platform is Any CPU), I get this error:

error MSB4019: The imported project "C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V110\Microsoft.Cpp.Default.props" was not found. Confirm that the path in the <Import> declaration is correct, and that the file exists on disk.

The relevant parts of my MSBuild project file look like this:

<ItemGroup>
   <ProjectFiles Include="$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\**\*.csproj" />
   <ProjectFiles Include="$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\**\*.vcxproj" />
</ItemGroup>
<PropertyGroup>
    <Configuration>Release</Configuration>
    <Platform>x64</Platform>
    <OutputFolder>$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\BuildOutput\$(Configuration)</OutputFolder>
    <SolutionDir Condition="$(SolutionDir) == '' Or $(SolutionDir) == '*Undefined*'">$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)</SolutionDir>
</PropertyGroup>
...
<Target Name="Compile">
    <MSBuild Projects="@(ProjectFiles)" Targets="Build" Properties="Configuration=$(Configuration);Platform=$(Platform);OutputPath=$(OutputFolder)\$(MSBuildProjectName);SolutionDir=$(SolutionDir)\" />
</Target>

The problem

In my MSBuild project file, I am using ToolsVersion="12.0". Visual Studio 2013 is indeed installed, so I don't understand why it chooses to use v4.0\v110. Are my project configurations for some reason skipped by MSBuild? I guess I could somehow override this folder using the /p switch, but I want my .proj file to be self-contained.

Answer 1

Try to set up environment variable

VisualStudioVersion=12.0

or pass it explicitly as property to msbuild on commandline

msbuild.exe <project or solution to build> /p:VisualStudioVersion=12.0

I think it is because Microsoft tries to keep compatibility with older Visual Studios.

see Visual Studio project compatibility and VisualStudioVersion

Answer 2

In my case, my build definition was configured to build my .sln file instead of my .proj file. I remember configuring it to build the MSBuild project, but somehow it seems to have reverted to the Solution.

Anyway, I found two solutions to the problem:

1. Make sure to build the .proj file (where the tools version is indeed set to 12.0).
2. Explicitly set the VCTargetsPath.