Visual Studio wants to build with wrong platform toolset

Question

I have upgraded a solution from VS2010 to VS2012. I did that with other solutions, and it worked fine.

But now when I tried to build the updated solution, the compiler tells me:

Error 1596  error MSB8020: The builds tools for Visual Studio 2010 (Platform Toolset = 'v100') cannot be found. To build using the v100 build tools, either click the Project menu or right-click the solution, and then select "Update VC++ Projects...". Install Visual Studio 2010 to build using the Visual Studio 2010 build tools.    C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V110\Microsoft.Cpp.Platform.targets   42  5   praat3

I don't know why the compiler tries to use VS2010.

In the project property pages, I see under "Debug source files" the following entries:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\VC\crt\src\
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\VC\atlmfc\src\mfc\
etc.

Also, if I set the "Platformtoolset" to "Inherit from project above or project standard", it defaults to "v100". I think this is the best hint about what goes wrong here.

By accident I managed to open up the Microsoft.Cpp.Platform.targets file, and I see that v90 and v100 are listed there, but not v110.

Could somebody who uses only VS2012 perhaps have a look at that file?

This is what it looks like for me:

<!--
***********************************************************************************************
Microsoft.Cpp.Platform.targets

WARNING:  DO NOT MODIFY this file unless you are knowledgeable about MSBuild and have
          created a backup copy.  Incorrect changes to this file will make it
          impossible to load or build your projects from the command-line or the IDE.

This file defines the steps/targets required to build Visual C++ projects
specifically on x86 platforms.

Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
***********************************************************************************************
-->

<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <ToolsetTargetsFound Condition="Exists('$(VCTargetsPath)\Platforms\$(Platform)\PlatformToolsets\$(PlatformToolset)\Microsoft.Cpp.$(Platform).$(PlatformToolset).targets')">true</ToolsetTargetsFound>
    <VCTargetsPathEffective Condition="'$(ToolsetTargetsFound)' == 'true'">$(VCTargetsPath)</VCTargetsPathEffective>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <!-- Import Before -->
  <Import Condition="Exists('$(VCTargetsPath)\Platforms\$(Platform)\ImportBefore')" Project="$(VCTargetsPath)\Platforms\$(Platform)\ImportBefore\*.targets"/>
  <!-- Import platform toolset file if found in this version -->
  <Import Condition="'$(ToolsetTargetsFound)' == 'true'" Project="$(VCTargetsPath)\Platforms\$(Platform)\PlatformToolsets\$(PlatformToolset)\Microsoft.Cpp.$(Platform).$(PlatformToolset).targets" />
  <!-- Try to find the toolset in older versions  -->
  <Import Condition="'$(ToolsetTargetsFound)' != 'true' and '$(MinSupportedVCTargetsVersion)' != 'v110'" Project="Microsoft.Cpp.Platform.Redirect.targets" />

  <PropertyGroup>
    <PrepareForBuildDependsOn>PlatformPrepareForBuild;$(PrepareForBuildDependsOn)</PrepareForBuildDependsOn>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <Target Name="PlatformPrepareForBuild" DependsOnTargets="$(PlatformPrepareForBuildDependsOn)">
    <PropertyGroup>
      <ConfigurationPlatformExists Condition="'%(ProjectConfiguration.Identity)' == '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)'">true</ConfigurationPlatformExists>
    </PropertyGroup>

    <!-- Error out when building an platform that is not set in the project file -->
    <VCMessage Code="MSB8013" Type="Error" Arguments="$(Configuration)|$(Platform)" Condition="'$(DesignTimeBuild)'!='true' and '$(ConfigurationPlatformExists)' != 'true'"/>

    <!-- Check if toolset exists in Visual Studio 2010 or Dev11 -->
    <VCMessage Code="MSB8020" Type="Error" Arguments="$(_PlatformToolsetShortNameFor_v100);$(PlatformToolset)" Condition="'$(DesignTimeBuild)'!='true' and '$(ToolsetTargetsFound)' != 'true' and '$(PlatformToolset)' == 'v100'" />
    <VCMessage Code="MSB8020" Type="Error" Arguments="$(_PlatformToolsetShortNameFor_v90);$(PlatformToolset)" Condition="'$(DesignTimeBuild)'!='true' and '$(ToolsetTargetsFound)' != 'true' and '$(PlatformToolset)' == 'v90'" />
    <VCMessage Code="MSB8020" Type="Error" Arguments="$(PlatformToolset);$(PlatformToolset)" Condition="'$(DesignTimeBuild)'!='true' and '$(ToolsetTargetsFound)' != 'true' and '$(PlatformToolset)' != 'v90' and '$(PlatformToolset)' != 'v100'" />
  </Target>

  <!-- Import After -->
  <Import Condition="'$(ToolsetTargetsFound)' == 'true' and Exists('$(VCTargetsPath)\Platforms\$(Platform)\ImportAfter')" Project="$(VCTargetsPath)\Platforms\$(Platform)\ImportAfter\*.targets"/>
</Project>

Thank you for the help.

Answer 1

Under "C/C++", there was a lib in "Additional include directories". I did not use this lib, but it was referenced. I removed this lib.

I also deleted all "studio 2010" entries in the registry.

Answer 2

The project is set to build with VS2010 compilers (platform toolset). You might have uninstalled VS2010 and got this error.

You can change the platform toolset in project properties->General->Platform Toolset. Change it Visual Studio 2012.

Answer 3

Same error for me recently with VS2017.

Turned out the solution was merely missing a dependent project.
If this is the cause, you should see something like:

Done building project "someproject.vcxproj" -- FAILED.  

on the next line after the error message:

error MSB8020: The build tools for Visual Studio 2010 (Platform Toolset = 'v100') cannot be found.

This error can be confusing since your projects may have already been retargeted.

Answer 4

I have met the same issue as @Greg and @Jahmic when building OpenCV on Windows using CMake and VS 15 2017 (toolset v141).

I get this error:

error MSB8020: The build tools for Visual Studio 2010 (Platform Toolset = 'v100') cannot be found.

It happens when the target config is not the first specified for DCMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES in the CMAKE_ARGS.

---

EDIT (12/01/2020): clarification for Stanislav

It's been a while, so I hope I will not say wrong things or confuse you more since I am no expert... So take this answer very carefully please.

In my case, I was when building my project solution in a CI after adding OpenCV in our Superbuild.

The configuration of the Superbuild was done by these lines:

cmake.exe -G "Visual Studio 15 2017" -A "x64" ../myProject/Superbuild
cmake.exe --build . --config RelWithDebInfo --target ALL_BUILD

But OpenCV doesn't support the config RelWithDebInfo. Indeed, in our External-OpenCV.cmake file I can find:

ExternalProject_Add(OpenCV GIT_REPOSITORY "https://github.com/opencv/opencv.git" GIT_TAG "${OPENCV_TAG}" SOURCE_DIR OpenCV BINARY_DIR OpenCV-build #CMAKE_GENERATOR ${gen} #CMAKE_GENERATOR_PLATFORM "x64" CMAKE_ARGS ${ep_common_args} -DCMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES:STRING=Release;Debug; -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS:BOOL=OFF -DBUILD_WITH_STATIC_CRT:BOOL=OFF -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE:STRING=Release -DBUILD_WITH_DEBUG_INFO:BOOL=ON -DBUILD_DOCS:BOOL=OFF -DBUILD_EXAMPLES:BOOL=OFF -DBUILD_PERF_TESTS:BOOL=OFF -DBUILD_TESTS:BOOL=OFF -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX:PATH=${OPENCV_INSTALL_DIR}

So the lines have been changed to these ones:

cmake.exe -G "Visual Studio 15 2017" -A "x64" -T v141 ../myProject/Superbuild
cmake.exe --build . --config Release --target ALL_BUILD

Now we have understood that we didn't need to add the target platform option (-T v141) so it has been removed.

Answer 5

I know this is an old thread, but perhaps this might help somebody else who comes here because of similar issues.

I had a similar problem. VS 2015 Community (MSBuild 14) building a c++ app, wanted to use VS 2010 (v100) tools. It all came down giving msbuild an invalid configuration option. Strange.

So, recheck all those options and parameters.

Answer 6

I had the same issue and found out in was caused by calling msbuild without options, i.e.:

msbuild myLib.vcxproj

Calling it with an explicit target solved the issue, i.e.:

msbuild myLib.vcxproj t:Rebuild /p:Configuration=Release;Platform=x64

Maybe it helps someone 🙂

Answer 7

In my case, I was building using the MSbuild command for VS2017.

The problem was an incomplete conversion of the VS solution file which was partially VS2010 and partially VS2017; converting individual projects within the solution did not correct the problem, since the solution file is used at the build level to define the build version.

To correct it, I used the /Upgrade switch on the command line:

SET msbuild="C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Professional\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe"

%msbuild% .\MyNiceProject.sln /Upgrade

After that, then I could compile the project from the command line without the error message:

%msbuild% .\MyNiceProject.sln /Rebuild "Release|Win32" /Out .\buildinfo.log