Can't Find Visual Studio error

I set up github to get the source code of UE4 to attempt multiplayer server and client coding. Which I know nothing about but that doesn’t matter at the moment because I cant seem to get the source code version running.

After setting up github to get the source code both as a file and through github repository, when attempting to do the step of GenerateProjectFiles.bat I get an error saying that UE4 can’t find Visual Studio.

95396-cant+find+vs+error.jpg

Which I installed before attempting the engine setup. Visual Studio opens and seems to work just fine. I also verified that the install directory is set in regedit.

I also made sure I had the proper languages and common tools set before installing Visual Studio.

I have installed and removed both Visual Studio and UE4 Source a few times thinking I may have did them in the wrong order. Trying both the file and the files off of github.

My operating system is windows 7. At this point I’m at a loss.

Help? :slight_smile:

Thanks
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Hello Nihilwolf,

The only thing I can think of that may be missing at this point would be the correct environment variables being set. Please open the Start Menu, right-click on Computer, select Properties > Advanced System Settings > Advanced > Environment Variables and then check to see if there are entries for VS120COMMONTOOLS and/or VS140COMMONTOOLS. If they are listed there, can you copy/paste the paths that are listed under the Value field? If they aren’t, you will need to add the one for VS140COMMONTOOLS manually to have VS2015 be detected.

If this is the case, hit “New” at the bottom and type in VS140COMMONTOOLS for the Name field and then put the following path in for the value:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\Tools"

This assumes that it was installed on your C:\ drive. If it was installed on a different drive or a different location, you’ll need to enter that instead.

The path for vs140commontools is there and this was the location:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\Tools\

However I did notice the spelling is not the same as what you have suggested as VS140COMMONTOOLS, but rather VS140COMNTOOLS. Could that be what the trouble is?

95480-vs140comntools.jpg

Well I added a new system variable spelled as VS140COMMONTOOLS with the value set to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\Tools\ and it didn’t work either.

Thank you for checking that. The next thing to check would be the registry, which is most likely the issue based off of the messages that it was giving you. This is more on the Microsoft/Visual Studio side of things but this should be simple enough to check.

Open your start menu, search for the “Run” command and then enter RegEdit into the Run window. This should bring up a window called the Registry Editor. Please be sure to not change any values in here unless you know exactly what you’re doing, as these are deeply rooted and changing things can cause problems.

Open the following path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0

Highlight the 14.0 folder and there should be some entries listed to your right, one of them being called “InstallDir”. Can you check this value to ensure that it matches the file path we were checking before? (For convenience, that’s this one: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\ )

If it’s not, don’t change it yet, just let me know what is listed there and we’ll decide how to proceed from there.

Thank you for helping me in figuring this out!

I did state in my OP that I checked the regedit entry for Visual Studio and it seem to point to the correct spot that being:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\

I’m currently at work so it wont be for several hours till I can verify again that the path is still correct but I will do that when I get home.

Thanks again for you help!

~

95674-regedit.png

The regedit for InstallDir appears to be correct?

Thanks,
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Ah, I apologize, I must’ve missed that. I’ll continue looking into other causes of this and get back to you as soon as possible.

I probably should have posted the reedit pic in my OP, I could see how it was over looked. anyway thanks for still looking for a resolution.

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I am also experiencing this same issue, but not only can I not get the source code, if I install UE4 (4.12.3) through the stock windows installer it also doesn’t detect the installation of Visual Studio 2015 Community. I tried uninstalling/reinstalling UE4 and VS several times. I even tried using the exact link that UE4 advertises and checked every single box on the installation to ensure i was not missing anything.
I also checked the reg value and environmental variables and confirmed they were correct.
I am using Windows 10.
Odd enough is that I tried the exact same thing on a fresh install of 10 on a separate system and was able to replicate the behavior.

I was thinking maybe if it were possible to get an older version of the source file if that would recognize Visual Studio, and then update the old verison to the latest?

Just thinking…

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That shouldn’t be required. Something to check real quick, can you open Visual Studio and go to Help > About Microsoft Visual Studio and take a screenshot of the window that pops up?

Here you go. I took 3 shots so you could see all the products in the scroll box.

Thanks!

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Hello Nihilwolf,

Thank you for your patience, I’ve been looking into other previous reports of this issue and have something else we can check. Back in your Environment Variables, please check the Path variable under System Variables and ensure that the following path is listed in there somewhere:

C:\Windows\System32\

If it’s not there, please add it and see if that changes anything.

1 Like

Well that was it!

Just added C:\Windows\System32\ to the long line of other addresses in the PATH variable and it worked!

Indecently I did uninstall VS 2 more times, and also did a complete uninstall with a third party program and still no luck.

Cheers to you sir!

Thanks again!

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Hi I have vs2017 community edition. And have same error visual studio is not installed … only on project launcher.
In ue4 editor I can compile without error. What should I do?

I had the issue that my projects (not source engine) could not find visual studio when hotreloading. This solved it, thanks.

If the above helpful steps didn’t work for you, double check that the “Visual Studio Integration” plugin wasn’t unchecked for some reason.