No references were found in the windows sdk (Windows 1903)

Question

I want to create simple toast notification to action center in windows 10 from a WPF app using this article .

But I got problem on Step 2:

Right click on the project => Add => Reference... => Windows => Core

What I checked:

• Windows 10 SDK Installation:
• Same issue with a WPF project

And this is my csproj file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="15.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
  <Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\$(MSBuildToolsVersion)\Microsoft.Common.props" Condition="Exists('$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\$(MSBuildToolsVersion)\Microsoft.Common.props')" />
  <PropertyGroup>
    <Configuration Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == '' ">Debug</Configuration>
    <Platform Condition=" '$(Platform)' == '' ">AnyCPU</Platform>
    <ProjectGuid>{A5A389ED-4BBB-4EF4-A8A4-45DD3D0AF9AE}</ProjectGuid>
    <OutputType>WinExe</OutputType>
    <RootNamespace>WpfApp3</RootNamespace>
    <AssemblyName>WpfApp3</AssemblyName>
    <TargetFrameworkVersion>v4.5</TargetFrameworkVersion>
    <TargetPlatformVersion>10.0.10240.0</TargetPlatformVersion>
    <FileAlignment>512</FileAlignment>
    <ProjectTypeGuids>{60dc8134-eba5-43b8-bcc9-bb4bc16c2548};{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}</ProjectTypeGuids>
    <WarningLevel>4</WarningLevel>
    <AutoGenerateBindingRedirects>true</AutoGenerateBindingRedirects>
    <Deterministic>true</Deterministic>
    <TargetFrameworkProfile />
  </PropertyGroup>
  <PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Debug|AnyCPU' ">
    <PlatformTarget>AnyCPU</PlatformTarget>
    <DebugSymbols>true</DebugSymbols>
    <DebugType>full</DebugType>
    <Optimize>false</Optimize>
    <OutputPath>bin\Debug\</OutputPath>
    <DefineConstants>DEBUG;TRACE</DefineConstants>
    <ErrorReport>prompt</ErrorReport>
    <WarningLevel>4</WarningLevel>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Release|AnyCPU' ">
    <PlatformTarget>AnyCPU</PlatformTarget>
    <DebugType>pdbonly</DebugType>
    <Optimize>true</Optimize>
    <OutputPath>bin\Release\</OutputPath>
    <DefineConstants>TRACE</DefineConstants>
    <ErrorReport>prompt</ErrorReport>
    <WarningLevel>4</WarningLevel>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <Reference Include="System" />
    <Reference Include="System.Data" />
    <Reference Include="System.Xml" />
    <Reference Include="Microsoft.CSharp" />
    <Reference Include="System.Core" />
    <Reference Include="System.Xml.Linq" />
    <Reference Include="System.Data.DataSetExtensions" />
    <Reference Include="System.Net.Http" />
    <Reference Include="System.Xaml">
      <RequiredTargetFramework>4.0</RequiredTargetFramework>
    </Reference>
    <Reference Include="WindowsBase" />
    <Reference Include="PresentationCore" />
    <Reference Include="PresentationFramework" />
  </ItemGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <ApplicationDefinition Include="App.xaml">
      <Generator>MSBuild:Compile</Generator>
      <SubType>Designer</SubType>
    </ApplicationDefinition>
    <Page Include="MainWindow.xaml">
      <Generator>MSBuild:Compile</Generator>
      <SubType>Designer</SubType>
    </Page>
    <Compile Include="App.xaml.cs">
      <DependentUpon>App.xaml</DependentUpon>
      <SubType>Code</SubType>
    </Compile>
    <Compile Include="MainWindow.xaml.cs">
      <DependentUpon>MainWindow.xaml</DependentUpon>
      <SubType>Code</SubType>
    </Compile>
  </ItemGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <Compile Include="Properties\AssemblyInfo.cs">
      <SubType>Code</SubType>
    </Compile>
    <Compile Include="Properties\Resources.Designer.cs">
      <AutoGen>True</AutoGen>
      <DesignTime>True</DesignTime>
      <DependentUpon>Resources.resx</DependentUpon>
    </Compile>
    <Compile Include="Properties\Settings.Designer.cs">
      <AutoGen>True</AutoGen>
      <DependentUpon>Settings.settings</DependentUpon>
      <DesignTimeSharedInput>True</DesignTimeSharedInput>
    </Compile>
    <EmbeddedResource Include="Properties\Resources.resx">
      <Generator>ResXFileCodeGenerator</Generator>
      <LastGenOutput>Resources.Designer.cs</LastGenOutput>
    </EmbeddedResource>
    <None Include="Properties\Settings.settings">
      <Generator>SettingsSingleFileGenerator</Generator>
      <LastGenOutput>Settings.Designer.cs</LastGenOutput>
    </None>
  </ItemGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <None Include="App.config" />
  </ItemGroup>
  <Import Project="$(MSBuildToolsPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />
</Project>

This error occurs after the update to Windows 1903, because Visual studio can not access C:\\Windows\\System32\\WinMetadata

Answer 1

On updating to the May 2019 release of Windows 10 the directory C:\\WINDOWS\\SysWOW64\\WinMetadata is removed and this is where Visual Studio is 2017 and 2019 is looking for all of the files.

There is 2 way to solve this:

1. Click Browse in reference manager and chose your reference from C:\\WINDOWS\\System32\\WinMetadata .

2. Copy WinMetadata folder from C:\\WINDOWS\\System32\\WinMetadata to C:\\WINDOWS\\SysWOW64\\WinMetadata . and then re-open reference manager.

Answer 2

Looks like the parent bug is documented at https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/content/problem/446490/visual-studio-cant-see-winmetadatadirectory-in-cwi.html

For me I clicked browse and used this path %windir%\\Sysnative\\WinMetadata and it worked for me. Windows 10 1903 \\ VS 17

Answer 3

I've reproduced your issue. The node <TargetPlatformVersion> should be below the existing node <TargetFrameworkVersion> node.

<TargetFrameworkVersion>v4.5</TargetFrameworkVersion>
<TargetPlatformVersion>10.0.10240.0</TargetPlatformVersion>

But there is the separate PropertyGroup with this node in your project file.

Answer 4

Visual Studio can not access the C:\\Windows\\System32\\WinMetadata directory to load the windows SDK on Windows 1903.

So a downgrade from windows 1903 to 1803 solved this issue.

I have reported this problem on the visual studio developer community page .

Answer 5

Windows 1903:

Copy WinMetadata folder from (hidden folder) C:\\WINDOWS\\sysnative\\WinMetadata to C:\\WINDOWS\\SysWOW64\\WinMetadata.

Re-open reference manager.

Answer 6

​The folder %windir%\\Sysnative\\WinMetadata does not seem to exist on my Windows 1903 (OS Build 18362.900).

My workaround was to make a local copy of the required files in %windir%\\System32\\WinMetadata (eg under a lib folder in your solution) and reference them from there.

In my case, this is how I got a hold of the Windows.Data.winmd and Windows.UI.winmd files (couldn't find them on NuGet).