Visual Studio 2015 not finding Visual studio 2010

21
votes

My visual studio 2015 cannot build 2010 platform toolsets. It says:

The build tools for Visual Studio 2010 (v100) cannot be found. To build using the Visual Studio 2015 (v140) build tools, either click the Project menu or right-click the solution, and then select "Upgrade Solution...". Install Visual Studio 2010 (v100) to build using the Visual Studio 2010 (v100) build tools.

I do not want to upgrade my project or switch the toolset. I have visual studio 2010 installed. It builds the 2012 projects inside visual studio 2015 fine. 2012 also finds the 2010 build tools and builds 2010 projects fine.

Is there a visual studio setting where I can point it to the Visual Studio 2010 directory so that it correctly finds the build tools?

I have tried reinstalling 2010, 2012 and 2015 in that order.

tldr; Visual studio 2015 wont build 2010 projects even though I have visual 2010 installed.

2
visual-studiovisual-studio-2010visual-studio-2015
Comment on downvote? – marsh
I had a similar issue recently. I can't find my notes on it right now, but I think the trick is to re-install VS 2010. – Austin Mullins
What project type are you building? class library, windows forms, etc? – laylarenee
A bunch of different things, dlls, libs, exe's. No windows forms though. – marsh
You need to change your toolset. This thread may help, its from VS2012, but might be relevant. stackoverflow.com/questions/15453629/… – laylarenee

2 Answers

1
votes

Install this service pack: https://www.visualstudio.com/news/vs2015-update2-vs

Fixed the issue for me. Released March 3, 2016 so it was unavailable at the time of posting.

0
votes

according to this documentation from microsoft, the toolset is a per-project setting. So you need to change it for all of your VS2010 projects inside VS2015.

To change the project toolset

  1. In Visual Studio, in Solution Explorer, open the shortcut menu for your project (not for your solution) and then choose Properties to open your project Property Pages dialog box.

  2. In the Property Pages dialog box, open the Configuration drop-down list and then select All Configurations.

  3. In the left pane of the dialog box, expand Configuration Properties and then select General.

  4. In the right pane, select Platform Toolset and then select the toolset you want from the drop-down list. For example, if you have installed the Visual Studio 2010 toolset, select Visual Studio 2010 (v100) to use it for your project.

  5. Choose the OK button.

does that help?