VS 2010: Cannot build solutions in IDE, but can using MSBuild

Question

I've recently installed both VS 2008 and VS 2010 on a new Windows 7 64-bit development machine. I moved several VS 2008 projects to both environments and attempted builds in both. On VS 2008, the builds works correctly, but none of them worked in VS 2010. What happened in VS 2010 was that on each solution, I received a message simply saying that it had failed, with no additional explanation, no matter what I set the message verbosity to. However, the same solutions build without errors under MSBuild.

This is an example program that builds correctly under VS 2008 and MSBuild, but fails in the IDE:

--- program starts here ---

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace DummyInstall
{
    static class Program
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// The main entry point for the application.
        /// </summary>
        [STAThread]
        static void Main()
        {
            Application.EnableVisualStyles();
            Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);
            MessageBox.Show("Installation has run. Congratulations!");
        }
    }
}

--- program ends here ---

I've researched this in a number of places, and have tried everything I can find, including uninstalling and reinstalling VS 2010. Any clues?

Thanks in advance,

David M. Stowell

Answer 1

Hi David,

If we set the build output verbosity higher as following below, what we can get?

Tools->Options->Projects and solutions->Build and Run

Post the error messages here.

Best regards,

---

Ego [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us

Answer 2

Setting the verbosity to "Diagnostic" and then building the code supplied above, I get the following:

------ Build started: Project: DummyInstall, Configuration: Debug Any CPU ------
========== Build: 0 succeeded or up-to-date, 1 failed, 0 skipped ==========

...and that's all.

David

Answer 3

Hi David,

No errors are reported? It is so strange.

Can you share an example project in your sky driver and post the link here?

I want to check whether your Visual Studio causes the issue or your project do it.

Best regards,

---

Ego [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us

Answer 4

If the project is created by VS 2008, when you open it in VS 2010, it should pops up migration wizard. Do you see it?

See your source code in original post, but the project file is more important. Please kindly share it on http://skydrive.live.com

thanks.

---

Forrest Guo | MSDN Community Support | Feedback to manager

Answer 5

Yes, the migration wizard appeared and the migration was (supposedly) successful.

I have placed the project file in my SkyDrive Public folder (DummyInstall.csproj). Note that I have the same symptoms on all the  projects that I have migrated from VS 2008. I have not tried creating a new project from scratch in VS 2010 - frankly, the dialog for creating new projects in VS 2010 is substantially different than that of VS 2008 and I have not yet figured it out.

Thanks,

David

Answer 6

Sorry, I could not get the file unless I get the file link. But now that all the projects that migrated run into this issue, so it's not with this project file. I don't need it now.

The abnormal thing is that build log verbosity setting. From the log you posted, that setting is set to "Quite". To diagnose the issue, please monitor below registry key while you change the setting.

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\General\MSBuildLoggerVerbosity

1. Quite = 0;
2. Diagnostic = 4

If the registry key doesn't change accordingly, please change it manually.  The most important thing is to get the build log. Please share log link once you get it.

thanks.

---

Forrest Guo | MSDN Community Support | Feedback to manager

Answer 7

Youl'll love this - the registry key is already set to 4. And what I've posted above is all I get when I try to build.

Any thoughts?

David

Answer 8

After related grief, we've installed VS 2012 on another machine and are successfully working on that machine. The original machine has been declared a lemon, since this was not the only problem it had given us. Thanks for your help.

David