Started to get "This project is targeting a version of .NET which is not installed", but it had worked fine before

Question

Started to get "This project is targeting a version of .NET which is not installed", but it had worked fine before

Rod Falanga 591

Before VS 2022 came out I started working on a .NET 5 API project using VS 2019. When VS 2022 came out I switched to using VS 2022. All was fine. No problems, I've been able to continue working on the project, adding new code/functionality, saving, etc.

That is until tonight. I noticed that there was an update to VS 2022, so I applied the update with the VS Installer. I am now at version 17.1.0 of VS 2022. I made some changes and was about to commit them, when I got this warning message within VS 2022:

This project is targeting a version of .NET which is not installed.

Then there's an Install link to the right of the warning message.

I'm confused by this warning message. First, I still have VS 2019 installed on this machine and it is up to date as well. (I checked when I brought up the VS Installer.) That means I do have .NET 5 on this machine. Secondly, why didn't VS 2022 complain about this earlier, when I first started modifying the code a couple of months back? I don't understand why it is a problem now, but previously everything was good.

Tianyu Sun-MSFT 34,436 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2022-02-16T09:36:08.13+00:00

Hi Rod, according to your description, I doubt it’s a potential issue. Could you help to check following three aspects?

1). In VS Installer > Individual components tab > check if components like .NET 5.0 Runtime or related components are checked. If it/they is/are not checked, try to check them and install it/them.

2). Type dotnet --info in CMD and share the listed installed SDKs with me.

3). Try to repair VS 2022 from VS Installer.

Kind Regards,
Tianyu
Rod Falanga 591 Reputation points

2022-02-16T13:25:42.57+00:00

Hi @Tianyu Sun-MSFT , you were correct, the .NET 5.0 Runtime was not checked in the Individual Components tab, for VS 2022. I checked it and that took care of it.

Odd, that it should have become unchecked.
Mclaughlin, Douglas 1 Reputation point

2022-02-16T18:40:56.39+00:00

I'm getting this same issue with ASP.Net Core 3.1. The solution has been fine for two years and now it want's to install the v3.1 Runtiime LTS. What is different about VS2022 17.1 that needs the runtime and not just the SDK?

I just checked with dotnet --info, the 3.1 runtime and SDK are already installed.

Even after allowing VS to install the version it thought was missing, even though it wasn't. The solution is still broken. This is a very, very nasty bug. My development is at a halt at this point with huge deadlines looming.
Tianyu Sun-MSFT 34,436 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2022-02-17T06:53:43.69+00:00

Hi @Mclaughlin, Douglas , I notice that the same/similar issue was reported on our Developer Community, here is the link. If installing the .NET Core 3.1 Runtime (LTS) still doesn’t work, could you please attach related error messages and log files and add comments there? It will be helpful for Visual Studio Product Team to investigate further and fix it.

Thanks for helping us make Visual Studio better.

4 answers

Your answer

Tianyu Sun-MSFT 34,436 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2022-02-16T09:36:08.13+00:00

Hi Rod, according to your description, I doubt it’s a potential issue. Could you help to check following three aspects?

1). In VS Installer > Individual components tab > check if components like .NET 5.0 Runtime or related components are checked. If it/they is/are not checked, try to check them and install it/them.

2). Type dotnet --info in CMD and share the listed installed SDKs with me.

3). Try to repair VS 2022 from VS Installer.

Kind Regards,
Tianyu
Rod Falanga 591 Reputation points

2022-02-16T13:25:42.57+00:00

Hi @Tianyu Sun-MSFT , you were correct, the .NET 5.0 Runtime was not checked in the Individual Components tab, for VS 2022. I checked it and that took care of it.

Odd, that it should have become unchecked.
Mclaughlin, Douglas 1 Reputation point

2022-02-16T18:40:56.39+00:00

I'm getting this same issue with ASP.Net Core 3.1. The solution has been fine for two years and now it want's to install the v3.1 Runtiime LTS. What is different about VS2022 17.1 that needs the runtime and not just the SDK?

I just checked with dotnet --info, the 3.1 runtime and SDK are already installed.

Even after allowing VS to install the version it thought was missing, even though it wasn't. The solution is still broken. This is a very, very nasty bug. My development is at a halt at this point with huge deadlines looming.
Tianyu Sun-MSFT 34,436 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2022-02-17T06:53:43.69+00:00

Hi @Mclaughlin, Douglas , I notice that the same/similar issue was reported on our Developer Community, here is the link. If installing the .NET Core 3.1 Runtime (LTS) still doesn’t work, could you please attach related error messages and log files and add comments there? It will be helpful for Visual Studio Product Team to investigate further and fix it.

Thanks for helping us make Visual Studio better.

Answer 1

Unfortunate "me too" comment. VS complains right after 17.1.0 update. Why would its components listed them uninstalled/unchecked when they're present?

PS C:\projects\cdk\src> dotnet --info
.NET SDK (reflecting any global.json):
Version: 6.0.200
Commit: 4c30de7899
OS Name: Windows
OS Version: 10.0.19043
OS Platform: Windows
RID: win10-x64
Base Path: C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\6.0.200\

Host (useful for support):
Version: 6.0.2
Commit: 839cdfb0ec

.NET SDKs installed:
2.1.526 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
2.2.207 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
3.1.301 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
3.1.416 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
5.0.303 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
5.0.405 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
6.0.200 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]

.NET runtimes installed:
Microsoft.AspNetCore.All 2.1.19 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.All]
Microsoft.AspNetCore.All 2.1.30 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.All]
Microsoft.AspNetCore.All 2.2.8 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.All]
Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 2.1.19 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 2.1.30 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 2.2.8 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 3.1.5 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 3.1.21 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 3.1.22 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 5.0.9 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 5.0.12 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 5.0.14 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 6.0.2 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
Microsoft.NETCore.App 2.1.19 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
Microsoft.NETCore.App 2.1.30 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
Microsoft.NETCore.App 2.2.8 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
Microsoft.NETCore.App 3.1.5 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
Microsoft.NETCore.App 3.1.21 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
Microsoft.NETCore.App 3.1.22 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
Microsoft.NETCore.App 5.0.9 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
Microsoft.NETCore.App 5.0.12 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
Microsoft.NETCore.App 5.0.14 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
Microsoft.NETCore.App 6.0.2 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 3.1.5 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 3.1.21 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 3.1.22 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 5.0.9 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 5.0.12 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 5.0.14 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 6.0.2 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]

Answer 2

Jerry Lanphear 1

Hi Rod. Nice to interact with you again. I installed VS 2022 for the first time today and experienced the same issue. I did notice however that my Blazor application targeting .NET 5 still compiles and runs in spite of the warning. Quite a feat for something that is not installed.

One would think that someone would want to get on such an embarrassing error and get it fixed.

Answer 3

Eric Claiborne 1

I have VS2019 & VS2022 both installed. I migrated project to VS2022 about 1 month ago, working fine. Yesterday, I updated VS2022 to 17.1.6 and I suddenly got the same ".NET not installed" message. As @Tianyu Sun-MSFT said to do, I ran the VS installer and sure enough .Net 5.0 and 3.1 Runtimes were NOT checked. I checked them both and the project is now loading without issues. I suppose I could have just clicked the "Install Fix" link, but I don't click on things unless I know what it's doing. Thank you for the fix!

However, there goes another few hours dealing with another bad VS update (several problems in the past). I am a huge "Microsoft Guy" and glad to see help is being provided to this issue. However, I am also concerned that VS2019 and VS2022 are so unstable these days. I've used VS since the late 90's and it was always the best IDE and very stable. Over the last two years or so, it seems like VS and this Blazor project are the most problems I have ever had with VS. I don't care about "rapid release" of VS versions. I want "reliable release". We are out here trying to build projects that last for years and MS keeps moving the dang ball on us! Get stable so we can work!

Lorin Chamlee 1 Reputation point

2022-09-22T12:17:32.433+00:00

I totally agree, I feel like VS2010 was the last stable IDE MS made. Ever since then I think there has become so many moving parts that MS can't even keep it together. I began to see issues crop up with the VS2017 release... to this day that is one of the worst versions of VS.
Eric Claiborne 1 Reputation point

2022-09-26T15:01:34.16+00:00

Yes, I agree about VS2010. I miss the good ole days of fast POCO and WinForms. I've been building a Blazor WASM app since 2020 and regret ever leaving WinForms. "Everyone" said it was dying and I believed it. We started a new greenfield project using Blazor. Ironically, the same people use WinForms based tools to build their web apps!

Back to the issue of unstable VS. About two weeks ago, we updated to v17.3.3 and found a new bug. I was forced to spend about a week updating to .NetCore 6 and all the related project dependencies. Sure enough, once we went through all of that, now we can't deploy the Web project (errors creating the deploy package). Apparently, there's and issue with having spaces in the file path for the solution (big mistake on my part). Following advice, I've tried changing the targeted version using the Global.json file, but I can't seem to overcome the problem. It's supposed to be fixed in the "September" update, and we are waiting for this so we can deploy.

Glad someone else is out there that recognizes the same issues. It's getting hard to make a living at this when I can't get tools to work and make a deadline. This has been the toughest few years of my coding career. I thought things get better with "new" tech. I'd take a cooperative IDE and the "old" framework if it helped me be successful at my job. The people signing my checks would rather see a working project too.

Answer 4

Just adding some extra here for anyone finding this is the future; I just ran into this issue recently during the latest VS2022 update...

The issue for me was the global.json file in the project root folder:

{  
    "sdk": {  
        "version": "6.0.400",  
        "rollForward": "disable"  
    }  
}

The update removed 6.0.400 and installed 6.0.401, so after I changed this in the global.json everything was good.
You could also experiment with the rollForward feature, but I have not tested that.

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Started to get "This project is targeting a version of .NET which is not installed", but it had worked fine before

4 answers

Your answer