107

After a Visual Studio 2017 (RC) installation from scratch, I can't find a standard list of templates. I'm specifically interested in the Console Application (C#) template and the Windows Form (C#) template. I'm pretty sure I'm missing one of the Individual Components. I'm not sure which one is supposed to be installed and I don't want to install all of them.

Please see my list with components installed.

enter image description here

enter image description here

Brian Tompsett - 汤莱恩
  • 5,753
  • 72
  • 57
  • 129
Serge V.
  • 3,377
  • 3
  • 20
  • 28
  • Well VS2017 has a groovy new web installer that allows you to install at least, the very basics. Which features did you pick? –  Dec 16 '16 at 17:20
  • 3
    Did you see the link on the left? – SLaks Dec 16 '16 at 17:20
  • @SLaks yes I see it, I simply don't not which component should I install. – Serge V. Dec 16 '16 at 17:22
  • Nooooooo. More than likely you just installed the Visual Studio Shell and nothing else. No languages; no templates; no pizza recipes. This isn't VS2005; 2008; 2010; 2012; 2013; 2015 –  Dec 16 '16 at 17:26
  • _"please read my question until the end"_ - I did. Your point? Yours is a simple _user error_ unlikely to fit the merits of SO. [ask] –  Dec 16 '16 at 17:58
  • 1
    @MattRowland you're right. It's my bad that I didn't check "Workloads" tab. I was looking in a wrong place ("Individual components"). that's why I asked the question. So if it's not useful for you doesn't mean is not useful for all of us. – Serge V. Dec 16 '16 at 18:05
  • 5
    I had the exact same troubles installing. Thought i selected all the right components, but the templates were missing. – CSharpie Dec 17 '16 at 09:19
  • 15
    This is a valid question. You would expect the templates to be there after downloading VS2017 Community which is what I did. Secondly, it is not obvious which options to select when dealing with the templates. The answer is what helped me. – Ray Dec 31 '16 at 19:08
  • 1
    Same issue on the released version. Had MS been a little smart they would have given us a warning on install, like "Are you sure you really do not need Windows Forms and Windows console templates?" with options like "No need" and "Add needed elements" – Eske Rahn Mar 12 '17 at 15:38
  • I tried to configure a minimalist VS2019. It was minimal all right. I didn't need a bunch of the stuff that got checked as part of .NET Desktop, like Blend & .NET Core stuff, SQL Server stuff... but no templates for C# Console or GUI. ALl I need is stuff for .NET Framework 3.5 (yes, I am working on a venerable old application in a W10 VM). – Bob Denny Aug 07 '20 at 18:32

10 Answers10

134

You need to install it by launching the installer.

Link to installer

Click the "Workload" tab* in the upper-left, then check top right ".NET-Desktop Development" and hit install. Note it may modify your installation size (bottom-right), and you can install other Workloads, but you must install ".NET-Desktop Development" at least.

Open Visual Studio installer; either "Modify" existing installation or begin a new installation. On the "Workloads" tab, choose the ".NET desktop devvelopment" option

*as seen in comments below, users were not able to achieve the equivalent using the "Individual Components" tab.

Nate Anderson
  • 18,334
  • 18
  • 100
  • 135
CSharpie
  • 9,195
  • 4
  • 44
  • 71
  • 1
    I think this is what I was looking for. My bad that I was looking in "Individual Components" tab. Installing right now. – Serge V. Dec 16 '16 at 17:38
  • @SergeVoloshenko You can probably do it via components aswell, but this was the solution i chose. – CSharpie Dec 17 '16 at 09:19
  • 1
    CSharpie, I tried to install a couple of the Components related to the templates and it didn't work. I don't think you will find any. Your solution is the only way to do. – Serge V. Dec 17 '16 at 20:46
  • 2
    I just wanted to add that this is the correct solution but this happened to me as well on the released version. I was confused as to why it didn't install due to the fact that I did select the .Net Desktop Development package. I I noticed the missing components and confirmed this by going into the installer again and the package was indeed checked. I selected an arbitrary package and hit install. Once this was complete I restarted and the .NET Desktop Package was finally available. To answer the obvious, yes I did a restart after my initial installation. – ozfive May 09 '17 at 22:30
  • @SergeVoloshenko I tried to follow suit and it looks like C# is not included in the **.Net desktop development**. Is there a way to add it to the workload or at least somehow make Visual C# Template appear in the new file list? – Sometowngeek May 12 '17 at 03:25
  • @Sometowngeek you have to open Visual Studio installer shortcut >> Modify >> Install .NET desktop development – Serge V. May 12 '17 at 15:27
  • 1
    I don't even have the C# node, just Installed -> Other Project Types -> Blank Solution. Nothing else. I'm clueless. – bokibeg Oct 23 '17 at 15:19
  • For some reason the ''Open Visual Studio Installer'' is not showing anymore. What fixed it for me was downloading the ''Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 Installer Projects'' (I have the 2015 version, otherwise download the 2017 one), hope it helps. – Martin Mar 22 '18 at 22:12
  • In my case, the "Not find what you're looking for" never showed in the dialog, so I just opened the stand-alone Visual Studio Installer from the Windows start menu and was able to modify the workload packages. – ebol2000 Aug 22 '18 at 15:30
24

If you have installed .NET desktop development and still you can't see the templates, then VS is probably getting the templates from your custom templates folder and not installed.

To fix that, copy the installed templates folder to custom.

This is your "installed" folder

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\ProjectTemplates

This is your "custom" folder

C:\Users[your username]\Documents\Visual Studio\2017\Templates\ProjectTemplates

Typically this happens when you are at the office and you are running VS as an administrator and visual studio is confused how to merge both of them and if you notice they don't have the same folder structure and folder names.. One is CSHARP and the other C#....

I didn't have the same problem when I installed VS 2017 community edition at home though. This happened when I installed visual studio 2017 "enterprise" edition.

Arash.Zandi
  • 1,010
  • 2
  • 13
  • 24
Hooman
  • 347
  • 2
  • 2
  • That helped but my `.cshtml` template is still missing – Serj Sagan Nov 29 '17 at 22:00
  • @DesireaHerrera, with this approach Templates folder didn't appear for me as well, but I could find the desired template under Installed tree node. Or use Search box to find it. – elshev Jan 27 '18 at 16:30
  • Dmitri Veselov has provided the way to find the path for user project templates. – XPD Jun 11 '22 at 15:08
  • I had to do that with VS 2022 17.5.0. All templates were missing on a fresh install. I wanted Python stuff. – mlt Feb 27 '23 at 23:59
  • For those landing here from Google with VS 2022 (17.5.0), there seem to be [another bug](https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/t/Neither-New-Project-nor-New-File-show-an/10291427) with a workaround to install ".Net SDK". – mlt Mar 03 '23 at 18:30
5

I found the path and wrote it in the options enter image description here

Dmitri Veselov
  • 427
  • 6
  • 14
2

My personal experience was that I had installed the Team Foundation Server client for 2017 first (was using it as a Proof of Concept for our QA team, while I was still using VS2015), then followed it up with Installing Visual Studio 2017 later to begin development.

What I ended up with on my Start Menu was a Visual Studio 2017 and a Visual Studio 2017 (2). The Visual Studio 2017 (2) had all the templates I was missing. Following the steps found in the First answer to this question (which were clear and easy to follow) did not fix my issue. I had thought that launching the client would upgrade to the Development Client, but it did not. I renamed it to Visual Studio Professional, and now have everything I need. Not sure if this happens to anyone else, but it was what happened to me, so I hope this helps someone.

JustDaveN
  • 91
  • 6
2

NOTE: this topic is about installation issues with MS project templates.

I came here via a search in Google, I was looking for a missing Template option in Visual Studio 2017 File menu: in VS-2015, it was Export to Template and I used it to add my own standard Project Items.

Meanwhile, I found an answer.. my issue was not related to default templates and it does not need install things. The option Export to Template has been moved to the VS-2017 Project menu !

Goodies
  • 1,951
  • 21
  • 26
2

I had to reinstall .NET desktop development (throught Workload tab), even button was showing: Modify

After that Visual C# selection appeared :) (And now i can use Console APP Template)

Pastuh
  • 376
  • 2
  • 12
1

In my case, I had all of the required features, but I had installed the Team Explorer version (accidentally used the wrong installer) before installing Professional.

When running the Team Explorer version, only the Blank Solution option was available.

The Team Explorer EXE was located in: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\TeamExplorer\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe"

Once I launched the correct EXE, Visual Studio started working as expected.

The Professional EXE was located in: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Professional\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe"

Wiz
  • 406
  • 3
  • 7
1

My C++ templates were there all along, it was my C# ones that were missing.

Similar to CSharpie, after trying many modify/re-installs, oddly the following finally worked for me :
- run the installer, but un-select 'Desktop development with C++'.
- allow installer to complete
- run the installer again, and select 'Desktop development with C++'.
- allow installer to complete

Grits
  • 121
  • 1
  • 5
0

In my case, I had all of the required features, but I had installed the Team Explorer version (accidentally used the wrong installer) before installing Professional.

When running the Team Explorer version, only the Blank Solution option was available.

The Team Explorer EXE was located in: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\TeamExplorer\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe"

Once I launched the correct EXE, Visual Studio started working as expected.

The Professional EXE was located in: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Professional\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe"

This solved my issue, and the reason was I had enterprise edition previously installed and then uninstalled and installed the professional edition. Team Explorer was not modified later when I moved to professional from enterprise edition.

benhorgen
  • 1,928
  • 1
  • 33
  • 38
user2633318
  • 31
  • 3
0

I just have the same problem : no project template shown on project creation ...

My initial install was without .net product: only C++ and Python.

I tried to repair, remove and reinstall, add new components ... with no success.

My last attempt was to remove all workload and to install the .net one and it works: the project templates are now available. I have added other workload successfully afterwards and each time, the corresponding template are added.

My conclusion: you need the .net module even if you don't want to use it.

ete94
  • 1
  • 1
  • As it’s currently written, your answer is unclear. Please [edit] to add additional details that will help others understand how this addresses the question asked. You can find more information on how to write good answers [in the help center](/help/how-to-answer). – Community Mar 08 '23 at 06:50