"Has invalid child element" warnings in Microsoft.Common.Targets while building

Visual Studio-2010Visual Studio-2012Visual Studio-2013Visual Studio-2015

Visual Studio-2010 Problem Overview


In my VS2010, when I build my solution, I have over 100 warnings in the file Microsoft.Common.Targets. When I try to build, publish or run my programs, I get just the warnings, but the moment I double click it to get more info, the Microsoft.Common.Targets pops up and then I get all on the warnings.

This file Microsoft.Common.Targets is part of the .net framework and has the MSBuild in-built targets, etc. And it has the approperiate schema associated in the properties window.

Some example warnings (2 out of 100) :

Warning    2    The element 'PropertyGroup' in namespace 'http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003' has invalid child element 'CustomBeforeMicrosoftCommonTargets' in namespace 'http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003'. List of possible elements expected: 'Property' in namespace 'http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003'.    C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\Microsoft.Common.targets    22    10    Miscellaneous Files
Warning    3    The element 'PropertyGroup' in namespace 'http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003' has invalid child element '_OriginalConfiguration' in namespace 'http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003'. List of possible elements expected: 'Property' in namespace 'http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003'.    C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\Microsoft.Common.targets    60    10    Miscellaneous Files

Why is this file suddenly in my editor, when it is not part of my project, and how to tell visual studio to ignore this framework file while building.

Visual Studio-2010 Solutions


Solution 1 - Visual Studio-2010

If I close all the editor windows, and then build it, all the warnings have disappered! Even a close & restart of visual studio did not fix this, but just closing all files from the editor window, including Microsoft.Common.Targets, fixed the problem. Arghhh Microsoft!!

I found this out after looking at this link :

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en/Vsexpressvb/thread/31f52b76-b0de-406d-9c25-2f329dd7cf1c

Also works on 2013 and 2015 editions

Solution 2 - Visual Studio-2010

If you are using VS 2017 or newer version, than you can remove the namespace part and the error will gone.

"The schema link in an MSBuild project file is not required in Visual Studio 2017 and later. If present, it should be http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003 regardless of the version of Visual Studio."

Reference: MSBuild project file schema reference

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Content TypeOriginal AuthorOriginal Content on Stackoverflow
QuestionZaszView Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - Visual Studio-2010ZaszView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 2 - Visual Studio-2010bafsarView Answer on Stackoverflow