The builds tools for v120 (Platform Toolset = 'v120') cannot be found

Using visual studio 2012 on windows 8 x64 aparantly this is caused by msbuild being moved into .net but I havn't seen how to fix it yet.

4>C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V110\Microsoft.Cpp.Platform.targets(44,5): error MSB8020: The builds tools for v120 (Platform Toolset = 'v120') cannot be found. To build using the v120 build tools, either click the Project menu or right-click the solution, and then select "Update VC++ Projects...". Install v120 to build using the v120 build tools.    
2>C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V110\Microsoft.Cpp.Platform.targets(44,5):
error MSB8020: The builds tools for v120 (Platform Toolset = 'v120') cannot be found. To build using the v120 build tools, either click the Project menu or right-click the solution, and then select "Update VC++ Projects...". Install v120 to build using the v120 build tools.    
5>C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V110\Microsoft.Cpp.Platform.targets(44,5): error MSB8020: The builds tools for v120 (Platform Toolset = 'v120') cannot be found. To build using the v120 build tools, either click the Project menu or right-click the solution, and then select "Update VC++ Projects...". Install v120 to build using the v120 build tools.

If you have VS2013 installed and are getting this error, you may be invoking the wrong MSBuild. With VS2013, Microsoft now includes MSBuild as part of Visual Studio. See this Visual Studio blog posting for details.

In particular, note the new location of the binaries:

> On 32-bit machines they can be found in: C:\Program > Files\MSBuild\12.0\bin > > On 64-bit machines the 32-bit tools will be under: C:\Program Files > (x86)\MSBuild\12.0\bin > > and the 64-bit tools under: C:\Program Files > (x86)\MSBuild\12.0\bin\amd64

The MSBuild in %WINDIR%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\ doesn't seem to recognize the VS2013 (v120) platform toolset.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_C++

You are using Visual C++ 2012 which is v110. v120 means Visual C++ 2013.

So either you change the project settings to use toolset v110, or you install Visual Studio 2013 on this machine and use VS2013 to compile it.

if you are using visual 2012 right-click on project name -> properties -> configuration properties -> general -> platform toolset -> Visual Studio 2012 (v110)

Download and setup Microsoft Build Tools 2013 from http://www.microsoft.com/en-US/download/details.aspx?id=40760

To add up to Kevin and Lex's answers:

We had a similar situation at work where both the developers and the build server had Visual Studio 2013. Our solution had a VS 2013 C++ project and compiled fine when built on developer's machine or on the build server within the IDE. The issue was when triggering builds using TFS build definitions. We were still using an old build template (version 11.1) instead of 12.0. Fortunately, a simple attribute addition to the template xaml file solved the issue. In the Sequence portion "Compile the Project", there is a xaml node that starts with

mtbwa:MSBuild CommandLineArgument=....

You can add a "ToolPath" attribute and point it to the right path of the MSBuild.exe you wish to invoke, based on Kevin's answer. For instance:

ToolPath="C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\12.0\Bin"

Wasted 4+ hours on this.

I have Visual Studio 2017 Enterprise, one of the projects has below error:

> The builds tools for v120 (Platform Toolset = 'v120') cannot be found

To resolve above error, I tried to install all below:

• Microsoft Build Tools 2013 (v120 tools) https://www.microsoft.com/en-US/download/details.aspx?id=40760
• Microsoft Build Tools 2015 https://www.microsoft.com/en-in/download/details.aspx?id=48159
• Build Tools for Visual Studio 2017 https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/#build-tools-for-visual-studio-2017

However, none of the above worked.

Later, installed Visual Studio 2013 Ultimate, then all worked fine.

Looks like, the older Visual studio is a must to resolve this.

Hope it helps.

To add up to Louis answer:

Alternatively you can use the attribute ToolVersion="12.0" if you are using Visual Studio 2013 instead of using the ToolPath Attribute. Details visit http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd647548.aspx

So you are not forced to use absolute path.

When a VS2013 C++ project is opened in VS2015, and there are warnings about "The build tools for v120... cannot be found", I simply need to edit the .vcxproj file and change <PlatformToolset>v120</PlatformToolset> to <PlatformToolset>v140</PlatformToolset>, and close and re-open the solution.

In VS 2012, I was getting "SMB2 will not build: Error 1 error MSB8020: The builds tools for Visual Studio 2010 (Platform Toolset = 'v100') cannot be found. To build using the v100 build tools, either click the Project menu or right-click the solution, and then select "Update VC++ Projects...". Install Visual Studio 2010 to build using the Visual Studio 2010 build tools."

Throwing caution to the wind, I tried the suggestion: Selected the Solution in Solution Explorer, then clicked in the "Update VC++" menu item. This did some updateing and then started a build which succeeded.

The "Update VC++" menu item no longer appears in the solution menu.

i had a similar problem when i removed VS 2013 community Update 5 and switched over to VS 2015 community edition

and the problem acquired in windows phone 8.1 projects where it complained about not having the right msbuild toolset and about the emulators not installed even if they are.

i know that the source of the problem was the VS 2013 community settings that has been left by that last uninstall which messed everything for me even though the uninstall process went smooth with no problems from the control panel.

i did my best to remove any files left but there was always some thing left.

and what only fixed it for me is a fresh windows 10 x64 installation then after it i installed VS 2015 community edition and that's it!! no more errors for me and the wp8.1 emulator worked fine too!!

in my case now am completely sure that the previous visual studio install settings has messed everything for me and because there wasn't any way i found and tried to completely erase VS 2013 community files and settings i had to pay the price for it and reinstall my OS.

you might be able to avoid OS reinstall if you can find a way to completely erase last visual studio install files.

P.S:only attempt this solution(OS reinstall) after you tried every possible way first then if nothing works and only then ... make this solution as a last resort.

In VS2013 to set up all projects to correct build tools, you can do a right click on the solution in solution explorer and choose "Retarget solution". It will change all progects (all you check with the checkbox in opened dialog), so the error will be gone.

In my case, I have double-clicked a Visual 2013 sln file and Visual 2012 opened (instead of Visual 2013). Trying to compile with Visual 2012, a project that has the Platform Toolset set to "v120" showed the error above mentioned. However, reopening the sln with Visual 2013, the Platform Toolset was set to "Visual Studio 2013 (v120)" - please note the complete name this time -, actually did the job for me. The project compiles well now.

I was getting the same error with building USBView project in VS2015. I removed this error by selecting 'Platform Toolset' settings to to "Visual Studio 2015 (v140)" and than right click on solution (in VS2015) and select 'Retarget Solution' and selected 10.0.10240.0 on that dialog.

It seems like there is also ProjectUpgradeTool from microsoft which is suppose to convert older projects to upgrade to post VS2012 VS but I couldn't locate that tool on my machine.

I still have to fix some new linker error with help of this.

I had a similar problem. VS 2015 Community (MSBuild 14) building a c++ app, wanted to use VS 2010 (v100) tools. It all came down giving msbuild an invalid configuration option. Strange.

So, recheck all those options and parameters.

If you use make generators like cmake, JUCE, etc. try to set a correct VS version target (2013, 2015, 2017) and regenerate the solution again.

I was facing same issue while building some of project.

I used Visual Studio 2015 IDE, there it was working fine but while giving build from PowerShell script, it was giving toolset related "The builds tools for v140 (Platform Toolset = 'v140') cannot be found." error

So eventually it was issue of pointing to incorrect MSBUILD exe for the respective project.

Earlier I was pointing to $MSBUILD="C:\windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\MSBuild.exe

And build was successful when I updated script to point to $MSBUILD="C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\14.0\Bin\MSBuild.exe"

Hence to resolve the issue, please make sure to use correct MSBUILD.