Why can't I create Shared Project in Visual Studio 2015?

Question

I downloaded visual studio community 2015. I tried to create a Shared Project and am getting an error:

Content from Microsoft.Windows.UI.Xaml.CSharp.targets

<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
    <PropertyGroup Condition="'$(TargetPlatformVersion)'==''">
        <TargetPlatformVersion>8.0</TargetPlatformVersion>
    </PropertyGroup>

    <PropertyGroup Condition="'$(TargetPlatformIdentifier)' == 'UAP'">
        <RedirectionTarget>8.2</RedirectionTarget>
    </PropertyGroup>

    <PropertyGroup Condition="'$(RedirectionTarget)' == ''">
        <RedirectionTarget>$(TargetPlatformVersion)</RedirectionTarget>
    </PropertyGroup>

    <!-- Direct 8.0 projects to 8.1 targets to enable retargeting  -->
    <PropertyGroup Condition="'$(RedirectionTarget)' == '8.0'">
        <RedirectionTarget>8.1</RedirectionTarget>
    </PropertyGroup>

    <Import Project="$(RedirectionTarget)\Microsoft.Windows.UI.Xaml.CSharp.targets" />
</Project>

I do not have folder with name 8.1

Answer 1

One workaround is to make the following edits:

Open the file %ProgramFiles(x86)%\\MSBuild\\Microsoft\\VisualStudio\\v14.0\\CodeSharing\\Microsoft.CodeSharing.CSharp.targets (for Visual Basic the file is Microsoft.CodeSharing.VisualBasic.targets ) and look for the following entries around line 8 -

<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\WindowsXaml\v$(VisualStudioVersion)\Microsoft.Windows.UI.Xaml.CSharp.targets" Condition="Exists('$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\WindowsXaml\v$(VisualStudioVersion)\Microsoft.Windows.UI.Xaml.CSharp.targets')"/>
<Import Project="$(MSBuildBinPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.Targets" Condition="!Exists('$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\WindowsXaml\v$(VisualStudioVersion)\Microsoft.Windows.UI.Xaml.CSharp.targets')" />    

Change these lines to the following -

<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\WindowsXaml\v$(VisualStudioVersion)\Microsoft.Windows.UI.Xaml.CSharp.targets" Condition="false"/>
<Import Project="$(MSBuildBinPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.Targets" Condition="true" />

Basically, undo the conditional import of the Xaml based shared projects.

This is (believe it or not) the advice I received from MS for this issue. I think it's related to an unclean upgrade of the RC (or earlier) versions to RTM and the selection of different options during install.

---

(Insert usual caveats about editing files that don't "belong" to you, take backups, and if you're not confident to make such edits, don't)

Answer 2

Try to copy 8.0 and 8.1 directories from C:\\Program Files (x86)\\MSBuild\\Microsoft\\WindowsXaml\\v12.0 to C:\\Program Files (x86)\\MSBuild\\Microsoft\\WindowsXaml\\v14.0 (notice version number at the end).

It seems that those are missing in 2015 installation on windows 7.

You'll need to restart Visual Studio after that.

Answer 3

To fix this issue install the Windows 8/8.1 Project templates.

All I did was:

1. Open VS 2015
2. Click File->New->Project
3. Choose the only Project template under Windows 8

This will launch Visual Studio setup where you can install the templates that are missing.

Then you can create your Project.

Answer 4

This is not a hard problem. Mr. Kriper (the original asker of the question) likely installed using the "Default Install" for his version of Visual Studio 2015. Mr. Kondrasovas in Answer 2 points to needing to install more components. His approach resulted in a Visual Studio displaying a setup utility error which is no fault of Mr. Kondrasovas. Mr. Kondrasovas answer is likely correct if you do not encounter an error (I have no way to verify the answer).

The solution is to go to Control Panel | Programs | Uninstall a program. Select Visual Studio 2015 and "Modify" the installed instance of Visual Studio 2015:

[sorry I cannot show the image b/c I do not have a 10 for a reputation and StackOverflow.com is blocking me]

The previous (imaginary) screenshot is from the default install of Visual Studio 2015 Professional. You can mess around and figure out the exact feature to install or if you have the disk space, simply click on "Select All" and then "Next". Hint: the "Next" button is not enabled until a change is made to the selected components of Visual Studio 2015.

If you want to see the missing image a complete write up, I wrote a blog post on the issue: http://www.softwarepronto.com/2015/08/visual-studio-2015-error-adding-shared.html