What's New in MSBuild 12.0
For the latest documentation on Visual Studio 2017, see Visual Studio 2017 Documentation.
MSBuild is now installed as part of Visual Studio rather than as part of the .NET Framework. The current MSBuild version number is 12.0. If you want to install MSBuild separately, download the installation package from MSBuild Download.
MSBuild is now installed directly under %ProgramFiles%—for example, in C:\Program Files\MSBuild\.
The following MSBuild properties are changed as a result of the new version number:
MSBuildToolsVersionfor this version of tools is 12.0.MSBuildToolsPathis now %ProgramFiles%\MSBuild\12.0\bin on 32-bit operating systems, or %ProgramFiles%\MSBuild\12.0\bin\amd64 on 64-bit operating systems.ToolsVersionvalues can be found in HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSBuild\ToolsVersions\12.0 for 32-bit operating systems or HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\MSBuild\ToolsVersions\12.0 for 64-bit operating systems.The
SDK35ToolsPathandSDK40ToolsPathproperties point to the .NET Framework SDK that's packaged with this version of Visual Studio (for example, 8.1A for the 4.X tools).
MSBuildFrameworkToolsPathis a new property that has a value of %windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319 on 32-bit operating systems or %windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319 on 64-bit operating systems. This is a replacement forMSBuildToolsPaththat can be used to point to the .NET Framework tools and utilities.MSBuildToolsPathandMSBuildFrameworkToolsPathhave 32-bit equivalents—MSBuildToolsPath32andMSBuildFrameworkToolsPath32—that always point to the 32-bit location, regardless of whether 32-bit or 64-bit MSBuild is being used.