No references were found in the windows sdk (Windows 1903)

Question

I want to create simple toast notification to action center in windows 10 from a WPF app using this article.

But I got problem on Step 2:

Right click on the project => Add => Reference... => Windows => Core

What I checked:

Windows 10 SDK Installation:
Same issue with a WPF project

And this is my csproj file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="15.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
  <Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\$(MSBuildToolsVersion)\Microsoft.Common.props" Condition="Exists('$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\$(MSBuildToolsVersion)\Microsoft.Common.props')" />
  <PropertyGroup>
    <Configuration Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == '' ">Debug</Configuration>
    <Platform Condition=" '$(Platform)' == '' ">AnyCPU</Platform>
    <ProjectGuid>{A5A389ED-4BBB-4EF4-A8A4-45DD3D0AF9AE}</ProjectGuid>
    <OutputType>WinExe</OutputType>
    <RootNamespace>WpfApp3</RootNamespace>
    <AssemblyName>WpfApp3</AssemblyName>
    <TargetFrameworkVersion>v4.5</TargetFrameworkVersion>
    <TargetPlatformVersion>10.0.10240.0</TargetPlatformVersion>
    <FileAlignment>512</FileAlignment>
    <ProjectTypeGuids>{60dc8134-eba5-43b8-bcc9-bb4bc16c2548};{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}</ProjectTypeGuids>
    <WarningLevel>4</WarningLevel>
    <AutoGenerateBindingRedirects>true</AutoGenerateBindingRedirects>
    <Deterministic>true</Deterministic>
    <TargetFrameworkProfile />
  </PropertyGroup>
  <PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Debug|AnyCPU' ">
    <PlatformTarget>AnyCPU</PlatformTarget>
    <DebugSymbols>true</DebugSymbols>
    <DebugType>full</DebugType>
    <Optimize>false</Optimize>
    <OutputPath>bin\Debug\</OutputPath>
    <DefineConstants>DEBUG;TRACE</DefineConstants>
    <ErrorReport>prompt</ErrorReport>
    <WarningLevel>4</WarningLevel>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Release|AnyCPU' ">
    <PlatformTarget>AnyCPU</PlatformTarget>
    <DebugType>pdbonly</DebugType>
    <Optimize>true</Optimize>
    <OutputPath>bin\Release\</OutputPath>
    <DefineConstants>TRACE</DefineConstants>
    <ErrorReport>prompt</ErrorReport>
    <WarningLevel>4</WarningLevel>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <Reference Include="System" />
    <Reference Include="System.Data" />
    <Reference Include="System.Xml" />
    <Reference Include="Microsoft.CSharp" />
    <Reference Include="System.Core" />
    <Reference Include="System.Xml.Linq" />
    <Reference Include="System.Data.DataSetExtensions" />
    <Reference Include="System.Net.Http" />
    <Reference Include="System.Xaml">
      <RequiredTargetFramework>4.0</RequiredTargetFramework>
    </Reference>
    <Reference Include="WindowsBase" />
    <Reference Include="PresentationCore" />
    <Reference Include="PresentationFramework" />
  </ItemGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <ApplicationDefinition Include="App.xaml">
      <Generator>MSBuild:Compile</Generator>
      <SubType>Designer</SubType>
    </ApplicationDefinition>
    <Page Include="MainWindow.xaml">
      <Generator>MSBuild:Compile</Generator>
      <SubType>Designer</SubType>
    </Page>
    <Compile Include="App.xaml.cs">
      <DependentUpon>App.xaml</DependentUpon>
      <SubType>Code</SubType>
    </Compile>
    <Compile Include="MainWindow.xaml.cs">
      <DependentUpon>MainWindow.xaml</DependentUpon>
      <SubType>Code</SubType>
    </Compile>
  </ItemGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <Compile Include="Properties\AssemblyInfo.cs">
      <SubType>Code</SubType>
    </Compile>
    <Compile Include="Properties\Resources.Designer.cs">
      <AutoGen>True</AutoGen>
      <DesignTime>True</DesignTime>
      <DependentUpon>Resources.resx</DependentUpon>
    </Compile>
    <Compile Include="Properties\Settings.Designer.cs">
      <AutoGen>True</AutoGen>
      <DependentUpon>Settings.settings</DependentUpon>
      <DesignTimeSharedInput>True</DesignTimeSharedInput>
    </Compile>
    <EmbeddedResource Include="Properties\Resources.resx">
      <Generator>ResXFileCodeGenerator</Generator>
      <LastGenOutput>Resources.Designer.cs</LastGenOutput>
    </EmbeddedResource>
    <None Include="Properties\Settings.settings">
      <Generator>SettingsSingleFileGenerator</Generator>
      <LastGenOutput>Settings.Designer.cs</LastGenOutput>
    </None>
  </ItemGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <None Include="App.config" />
  </ItemGroup>
  <Import Project="$(MSBuildToolsPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />
</Project>

This error occurs after the update to Windows 1903, because Visual studio can not access C:\Windows\System32\WinMetadata

This error occurs after the update to Windows 1903, because Visual studio can not access C:\Windows\System32\WinMetadata — Luca Ziegler, Jun 15 '19 at 12:05

score 7 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 05 '20 at 14:21

On updating to the May 2019 release of Windows 10 the directory C:\WINDOWS\SysWOW64\WinMetadata is removed and this is where Visual Studio is 2017 and 2019 is looking for all of the files.

There is 2 way to solve this:

1. Click Browse in reference manager and chose your reference from C:\WINDOWS\System32\WinMetadata.

2. Copy WinMetadata folder from C:\WINDOWS\System32\WinMetadata to C:\WINDOWS\SysWOW64\WinMetadata. and then re-open reference manager.

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 06 '19 at 19:45

5

Looks like the parent bug is documented at https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/content/problem/446490/visual-studio-cant-see-winmetadatadirectory-in-cwi.html

For me I clicked browse and used this path %windir%\Sysnative\WinMetadata and it worked for me. Windows 10 1903 \ VS 17

answered Aug 06 '19 at 19:45

OTG

51
4

Jesus fkin Christ, finally. Was pulling my hair out, can't believe the hardships to add a single frikin package... Big thanks! – Starwave Oct 25 '19 at 14:23
Additional info: adding reference from that path of yours, ended up giving me errors that compiler cannot find Windows.UI and Windows.Data files. Turns out, it is some sort of Visual Studio bug (https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/content/problem/446490/visual-studio-cant-see-winmetadatadirectory-in-cwi.html). As a workaround, I copied the WinMetadata folder from c:\Windows\system32 to some other accessible place and references where not throwing errors anymore. – Starwave Oct 25 '19 at 15:35

Ivan R. · Answer 3 · 2019-06-12T11:53:20.953

0

I've reproduced your issue. The node <TargetPlatformVersion> should be below the existing node <TargetFrameworkVersion> node.

<TargetFrameworkVersion>v4.5</TargetFrameworkVersion>
<TargetPlatformVersion>10.0.10240.0</TargetPlatformVersion>

But there is the separate PropertyGroup with this node in your project file.

edited Jun 12 '19 at 11:53

answered Jun 12 '19 at 10:55

Ivan R.

1,875
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11

Same issue with a WPF project – Luca Ziegler Jun 12 '19 at 10:57
Thank your for your answer, I updated my csproj file (see the edited question) and installed the SDK version 10.0.10240.0, but the error still exists – Luca Ziegler Jun 12 '19 at 12:08
Even with your project file I can see these references now. – Ivan R. Jun 12 '19 at 13:01
So it seems to be a visual studio bug – Luca Ziegler Jun 12 '19 at 13:38
This error occurs after the update to Windows 1903! – Luca Ziegler Jun 15 '19 at 11:59

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 16 '19 at 15:18

0

Visual Studio can not access the C:\Windows\System32\WinMetadata directory to load the windows SDK on Windows 1903.

So a downgrade from windows 1903 to 1803 solved this issue.

I have reported this problem on the visual studio developer community page.

answered Jun 16 '19 at 15:18

Luca Ziegler

3,236
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score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 20 '20 at 12:27

0

Windows 1903:

Copy WinMetadata folder from (hidden folder) C:\WINDOWS\sysnative\WinMetadata to C:\WINDOWS\SysWOW64\WinMetadata.

Re-open reference manager.

answered Feb 20 '20 at 12:27

Leszek P

1,807
17
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score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Jun 19 '20 at 22:00

The folder %windir%\Sysnative\WinMetadata does not seem to exist on my Windows 1903 (OS Build 18362.900).

My workaround was to make a local copy of the required files in %windir%\System32\WinMetadata (e.g. under a lib folder in your solution) and reference them from there.

In my case, this is how I got a hold of the Windows.Data.winmd and Windows.UI.winmd files (couldn't find them on NuGet).

No references were found in the windows sdk (Windows 1903)

6 Answers6