.net 3.5 - Visual Studio 2012 failing to detect Visual Studio 2008 build tools

Question

I am trying to use Visual Studio 2012 to build a C++ CLI application targeting .NET 3.5.

I've already gotten this working on one machine, by installing Visual Studio 2008, and specifying the v90 platform toolset.

Now I am attempting this on a new machine, and I've installed Visual Studio 2008, then Visual Studio 2012.

Now I get this incredibly frustrating error:

Error 81 error MSB8020: The builds tools for Visual Studio 2008 (Platform Toolset = 'v90') cannot be found. To build using the v90 build tools, either click the Project menu or right-click the solution, and then select "Update VC++ Projects...". Install Visual Studio 2008 to build using the Visual Studio 2008 build tools. C:Program Files (x86)MSBuildMicrosoft.Cppv4.0V110Microsoft.Cpp.Platform.targets 43 5 WinApiWrapper (Visual Studio 2008)

Why WOULDN'T Visual Studio 2012 be able to find Visual Studio 2008. Is there any way I can help it?

Answer 1

It turns out that you ALSO have to install Visual Studio 2010.

Once I installed Visual Studio 2010, Visual Studio 2012 was able to detect the Visual Studio 2008 build tools.

It seems absolutely crazy, but there you go.