"C:\Microsoft.Cpp.Default.props" was not found

Question

I have a project created in Visual Studio, 2013.

The project file has the following properties:

ToolsVersion="12.0", PlatformToolset = v120.

I have Visual Studio 2013 and Microsoft Build Tools 2015 installed. This project gets successfully built using MSBuild 12.0. Upon the attempt to build it with MSBuild 14.0 I get an error

MSB4019: The imported project "C:\Microsoft.Cpp.Default.props" was not found. Confirm that the path in the <Import> declaration is correct, and that the file exists on disk.

As I understand, the problem is that the variable VCTargetsPath doesn’t get evaluated. If I specify the variable VCTargetsPath before the build (with the value C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V120), the problem is solved.

However, this approach is not very convenient in case the path is different. Is it possible to somehow solve the problem in a more optimal way?

The registry key and its value:

HKLM\Software\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\MSBuild\ToolsVersions\12.0\VCTargetsPath $([MSBuild]::ValueOrDefault('$(VCTargetsPath)','$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V120\'))

*Upon the attempt to build it with MSBuild 14.0* how exactly do you do that? You should probably call vcvars.bat (or equivalent for build tools 2015) first.. — stijn, Jan 17 '17 at 14:17
Agree with stijn, please set the Path and Environment Variables for Command-Line Builds via vcvars.bat and check if it works for you. For more information about set the Path and Environment Variables for Command-Line Builds, please refer to: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/f2ccy3wt.aspx — Zhanglong Wu - MSFT, Jan 23 '17 at 07:38
Possible duplicate of [Why does MSBuild look in C:\ for Microsoft.Cpp.Default.props instead of c:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild? ( error MSB4019)](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/16092169/why-does-msbuild-look-in-c-for-microsoft-cpp-default-props-instead-of-c-progr) — Florian Winter, Oct 11 '18 at 15:20

score 72 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 27 '18 at 00:55

72

It took me two hours to fix this problem, but I finally finished.

The following solved my problem:

Run this on an elevated command prompt (admin): npm install --global --production windows-build-tools. If you don't have npm I recommend installing it, otherwise this won't work.
Change ownership in the install dir (in my case C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\14.0) to your user, instead of admin. (properties>Security>Advanced).

answered Jul 27 '18 at 00:55

Nic Szerman

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Thank you. I just needed to (re)run `npm install -g --production windows-build-tools`. – Dan Atkinson Dec 05 '18 at 12:04
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@Nic Szer can you explain me the second step? I am unable to understand it. – HarshitMadhav Apr 10 '19 at 18:51
@NicSzer in my case I am seeing Owner: SYSTEM what should I do? – HarshitMadhav Apr 10 '19 at 18:58
@HarshitAgrawal you need to change who owns the folder such that your user is the owner, not SYSTEM – Nic Szerman Apr 11 '19 at 04:33
@NicSzer thanks for the reply. I did that but getting new errors now. This is my first time trying to run react native project on windows. I need some help Can we connect on chatroom of stackoverflow? – HarshitMadhav Apr 11 '19 at 17:01
Same problem as OP in 2020 and running NPM with these arguments does not work for me. It complains various packages have been deprecated (since February 2020). Although the process completes, the problem still persists. – Georgina Davenport Aug 29 '20 at 21:21
How can we install npm if I face the same situation inside a windows container with a base image as `mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/framework/sdk:4.8-windowsservercore-ltsc2019` – Surya Tej Oct 28 '20 at 13:17

Alex · Answer 2 · 2019-02-20T22:03:18.477

60

I recently reinstalled Visual studio 2017 and encountered this issue while trying to install "npm java". The fix for me is:

set ms version to 2017: npm config set msvs_version 2017
set VCTargetsPath environment variable to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\BuildTools\Common7\IDE\VC\VCTargets
run command console as system administrator

edited Feb 20 '19 at 22:03

answered Feb 01 '19 at 03:23

Alex

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`npm config set msvs_version 2017` this code saved my hours. Thanks. – canmustu Jul 21 '19 at 00:41
@Alex did your `VCTargets` directory already contain `Microsoft.Cpp.Default.Props`? I have the directory but that file is missing. – starscream_disco_party Aug 21 '19 at 15:00
@starscream_disco_party yes, Microsoft.Cpp.Default.Props is already in my VCTargets folder – Alex Aug 22 '19 at 03:19
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2 years later and still running into this issue. Buy a new laptop install everything and then spend days fighting this problem. the npm config set msvs_version 2017 was the fix for me – Bruce C May 13 '21 at 18:53
I was having issues to install npm-sass@4.13.0, after running command "npm config set msvs_version 2017" it seems to have solved the problem for me, thanks – manjuvreddy Sep 23 '21 at 12:26
Also works with VS 2022 <3 – Mr Patience May 20 '22 at 08:46

score 26 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 14 '18 at 13:28

26

These steps solved my issue:

Run npm install --global --production windows-build-tools
Run npm install --save nan
Set VCTargetsPath environment variable to C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V140

answered Aug 14 '18 at 13:28

Emre Tapcı

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where is VCTargetsPath located? – HarshitMadhav Apr 10 '19 at 19:43
Perfect solution – Hammad ul Hasan Nov 25 '19 at 08:02
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@HarshitAgrawal `VCTargetsPath` is the name of the environment variable. – Emre Tapcı Nov 25 '19 at 09:26
The 3rd step only needed in my case. – Sergei Krivonos Apr 28 '20 at 21:46

score 19 · Answer 4 · edited Sep 08 '20 at 20:20

19

For those using VS 2019:

set VCTargetsPath="C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Professional\MSBuild\Microsoft\VC\v160"

Edit (Sep 2020): Sometimes it requires a trailing backslash (as bmiller mentioned below)

edited Sep 08 '20 at 20:20

David Noreña

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answered Nov 04 '19 at 15:29

TheRennen

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This worked for me. Note that I also required a trailing backslash on the path, else the build failed looking for specific platform props in a subfolder. – bmiller Sep 02 '20 at 19:07
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Worked for me as well, although you need to make sure you specified proper VS version (in my case it was Community - "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community\MSBuild\Microsoft\VC\v160" – g0rski Nov 11 '20 at 12:31

score 14 · Answer 5 · answered May 30 '19 at 01:58

For those the above answer does not work, here is another possible solution to look at.

Even the installation of build tools or VS 2015 did not work for me. So I tried installing below directly via PowerShell (as admin)

https://chocolatey.org/packages/visualcpp-build-tools/14.0.25420.1 Command: choco install visualcpp-build-tools --version 14.0.25420.1

Once this was installed, set an environment variable VCTargetsPath=C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\v140

Using Chocolatey solved it for me, I didn't even set the environment variable, it worked out of the box — Meir Gabay, Aug 24 '20 at 15:26

score 7 · Answer 6 · answered Oct 26 '18 at 08:00

7

I solved this by:

Set VCTargetsPath environment variable to C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V140
build using admin

answered Oct 26 '18 at 08:00

PytLab

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score 3 · Answer 7 · answered Aug 19 '20 at 09:24

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I could not make it work with all the suggestions on this page

I downgraded nodejs to 10.15 and it worked fine

probably not the best answer but it works

answered Aug 19 '20 at 09:24

phil123456

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Yup Node 10 is fine for me, unfortunately our servers are on node 12 now and node 10 is being depreciated so it's off to Linux for me. – The Coder Aug 14 '21 at 00:02

score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Oct 07 '20 at 10:22

When running MSBuild outside of Visual Studio 2019 (migrated from 2012), I had these kinds of problems. I solved them running this MSBuild:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community\MSBuild\Current\Bin\msbuild"

(customize it based on your VS version and target architecture) instead of this one:

C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\msbuild

that I was using when I had Visual Studio 2012.

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Feb 21 '19 at 05:49

0

I tried npm install and VCTargetsPath, all not work. Finally solved after it after upgrading visual studio to the latest version.

answered Feb 21 '19 at 05:49

PaaSFly

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score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Feb 25 '19 at 11:49

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Resolved by installing Visual Studio Express 2015 for Windows 10.

answered Feb 25 '19 at 11:49

Patapoom

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Moving from Express to Pro caused the issue in my case. Set VCTargetsPath environment variable to C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V140 – Sergei Krivonos Apr 28 '20 at 21:47

score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Sep 12 '20 at 19:11

0

I solved the problem by loading the solution in VS 2019 instead of double-clicking the solution name in File Explorer.

answered Sep 12 '20 at 19:11

gerritvn

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score 0 · Answer 12 · answered May 11 '21 at 15:07

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This happened for me when I used node version 14.15.3, install Node Version Manager, install lower Node version (8.x.x for example), switch to it and that should solve the issue.

answered May 11 '21 at 15:07

Luka Devic

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score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Dec 24 '21 at 00:02

After calling VS2019's vcvarsall.bat, it is necessary to use VS2019's MSBuild instead of the one in C:\Windows.

set VCVARSALL=%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Professional\VC\Auxiliary\Build\vcvarsall.bat
call "%VCVARSALL%" amd64
set MSBUILD=%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Professional\MSBuild\Current\Bin\MSBuild.exe
rem set MSBUILD=%FrameworkDir%\%FrameworkVersion%\msbuild.exe

score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Jan 27 '22 at 14:03

In my case, the reason was that the system environment variable VisualStudioVersion was pointing to the removed version of Visual Studio.

The same solution was building ok from inside the Visual Studio but failed when building with the command-line MSBuild.

The problem was solved by changing the environment variable manually.

KEMBL · Answer 15 · 2022-02-17T14:02:22.803

I have VS 2019 and I met the same problem trying to install module 'keytar' on Windows 10. This is what I did in order to solve the problem:

Opened "Visual Studio Installer" and removed extra 2017/2019 build tools (for example "Visual Studio Build Tools 2017", restarted the PC
Got back into "Visual Studio Installer" / "Visual Studio Professional 2019" / "Modify" and added "Desktop development with C++" workload
Got into project folder with my problem, removed node_modules folder
Opened CMDO
As @TheRennen suggested performed the command: set VCTargetsPath=C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Professional\MSBuild\Microsoft\VC\v160\ (without quotation marks and with one backslash at the end)
run yarn command and now there were no errors.

I think now it a time to add VCTargetsPath into Windows env values.

node v14.19.0, npm 7.20.5, yarn 1.22.15

score 0 · Answer 16 · answered Apr 16 '22 at 08:22

I have faced this issue while building my flutter application. The issue arises because of the program in my case flutter was unable to locate the file "Microsoft.Cpp.Default.props" which is required for building flutter apps in windows.

For solving the issue install MicroSoft Visual Studio(not Visual Studio code) from the below url. https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/

Make sure to check the below option before starting installation.

After installation go to below directory.

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\Msbuild\Microsoft\VC

Note : I have installed community version of 2022 Visual Studio. The folder structure may be different based on your VS version

You can see few folders with version numbers

Open the folder and check which one have the "Microsoft.Cpp.Default.props" file . For my case it was the last folder v170. Open Environment variable and set "VCTargetsPath" variable with path to the folder in which "Microsoft.Cpp.Default.props" is present. Save path and restart the build process. This should work.

score -1 · Answer 17 · answered Nov 20 '19 at 19:22

-1

Make sure to use --global with the command in order to be able to use this package anywhere. This solves the issue for me

answered Nov 20 '19 at 19:22

Kareem Khaleel

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score -1 · Answer 18 · edited Apr 13 '21 at 18:33

-1

While checking the .vcxproj file, I noticed the ToolsVersion was missing. I added it and it solves the issue.

Before :

<Project DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">

After :

<Project DefaultTargets="Build" ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">

edited Apr 13 '21 at 18:33

David Buck

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answered Apr 13 '21 at 14:13

GinoDev

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It seems the relevant content is still missing in the answer. Can you edit it and add that? – ranka47 Apr 13 '21 at 14:45

"C:\Microsoft.Cpp.Default.props" was not found

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