Struggling to compile your .NET 2015 Preview (.NET 4.6) solutions using TFS 2013 build? That’s because TFS 2013 uses MSBuild 12.0 as the default version. Your Microsoft .NET 2015 Preview (.NET 4.6 / C# 6 beta) solutions with fail compilation if you use TFS 2013 Build agents. Let’s see how this can be fixed…

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How to customize build template to point to MSBuild 14.0?

  1. You need to amend the build templates to point to MS Build version 14.0. The easiest way to do this is to create a copy of the build template for backup.
    TFS 2013 Build Templates
  2. Open the template in Visual Studio and search (Ctrl + F) for “ToolVersion”
  3. Click F4 to load the properties window
  4. Change the MSBuild version to “14.0”
  5. Search for other occurrences of ToolVersion and override the values for MSBuild only

Customize TFS 2013 template to work with MSBuild 14.0

Note: Restart the build service to ensure that the updated version of the build template is picked up by the build agent. 

Queue a new build, your .NET 4.6 project should compile just fine.

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About author
Tarun Arora
Tarun Arora
Tarun Arora is obsessed with high-quality working software, DevOps, Continuous Delivery and Agile. His core strengths are Azure, Azure DevOps, PowerShell, SQL and WPF. He is a Microsoft MVP in Visual Studio Development Tools and the author of 'DevOps & ALM with TFS 2015'.
We Are
  • onlyutkarsh
    Utkarsh Shigihalli
    Microsoft MVP, Technologist & DevOps Coach


  • arora_tarun
    Tarun Arora
    Microsoft MVP, Author & DevOps Coach at Avanade

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