If I have a Visual Studio Solution file of VS2012 with few C++ native projects and a few C# projects, can I build this solution without installing Visual Studio 2012 itself?
This would ease (among other things) the maintenance on our Build-Server nodes.
You will need to install VS2012 Express. Based on Microsoft documentation: The Windows SDK no longer ships with a complete command-line build environment. You must install a compiler and build environment separately. If you require a complete development environment that includes compilers and a build environment, you can download Visual Studio 2012 Express, which includes the appropriate components of the Windows SDK.
There's also SharpDevelop... That should be able to build whatever you need. You may need to install the SDK, too- not sure. But it's quite a bit more lightweight than VS (express or not). And there's always Mono (and MonoDevelop/Xamarin Studio) for the C# and LLVM, MinGW and LCC for the C/C++ compilation, should you feel Microsoft's compilers have cooties. LLVM just released their first version for Windows not long ago, but it seems pretty solid... MinGW has been working on Windows for ages (and cross-compiling to Windows from various POSIX OSes, to boot). LCC can be slightly flaky at times, but it's tiny. I think the licensing is a bit restrictive, too, but you'll want to check yourself if that's the route you intend to go.
Also... just found this: Walkthrough: Using MSBuild to Create a Visual C++ Project.
