.NET6 - MSB4236: The SDK 'Microsoft.NET.Sdk' specified could not be found

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.NET6 - MSB4236: The SDK ‘Microsoft.NET.Sdk’ specified could not be found

Describe the bug

After installing .NET6 on Windows Server 2016 every project that I try to build on that machine fails due to MSB4236: The SDK 'Microsoft.NET.Sdk' specified could not be found

To Reproduce

Install latest SDK (.NET6) and Runtime on Windows Server 2016. Doesn’t matter if I use .NET installer or binaries or even Visual Studio Build Tools 2022

Exceptions (if any)

On my local dev machine - Windows 10, everything works fine

Further technical details

This machine used to have all the previous .NET Core SDKs and Runtimes. I have uninstalled all of them so my machine is clean. I have also checked Environment Variables and they also look normal.

Windows Server 2016 dotnet --info

.NET SDK (reflecting any global.json):
 Version:   6.0.101
 Commit:    ef49f6213a

Runtime Environment:
 OS Name:     Windows
 OS Version:  10.0.14393
 OS Platform: Windows
 RID:         win10-x64
 Base Path:   C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\6.0.101\

Host (useful for support):
  Version: 6.0.1
  Commit:  3a25a7f1cc

.NET SDKs installed:
  6.0.101 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]

.NET runtimes installed:
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 6.0.1 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 6.0.1 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 6.0.1 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]

To install additional .NET runtimes or SDKs:
  https://aka.ms/dotnet-download

[VaslD]

I think I’ve found the cause of this problem.

My system environment variables contain an entry for MSBuildSDKsPath, which points to C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk. It looks harmless.

In C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\6.0.301\Current\SolutionFile\ImportAfter\Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Solution.targets, the target definition/template references $(MSBuildSDKsPath)\Microsoft.NET.Sdk\targets\Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Common.targets, which resolves to C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\Microsoft.NET.Sdk\targets\Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Common.targets given MSBuildSDKsPath but there’s nothing there.

Deleting that MSBuildSDKsPath from environment variables (and restarting affected terminals and IDEs to apply the change) fixed it for me.

PS: I found out about this because when I did a dotnet restore and the error log became:

C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\6.0.301\Current\SolutionFile\ImportAfter\Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Solution.targets(14,3): error MSB4019: The imported project "C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\Microsoft.NET.Sdk\targets\Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Common.targets" was not found. Confirm that the expression in the Import declaration "C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\Microsoft.NET.Sdk\targets\Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Common.targets" is correct, and that the file exists on disk.

Which explained what was happening much better, and pointed so much closer to the real issue in contrast to “SDK not found”. “Not found” is like the second hardest problem to solve than “A problem occurred”. Please fix this, if not the issue, the message.

[drewrodrigues]

Add the environment variable MSBuildSDKsPath with the value of C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\6.0.402\Sdks\ (or whatever your sdk version is). Should do the trick!