HoloToolkit build is not compatible with Visual Studio 2017 and MSBuild 15.0

In the official HoloLens documentation, Visual Studio 2017 is supported (https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/mixed-reality/install_the_tools)

Since Visual Studio 2017, MSBuild 15.0 is not longer a standalone package and we can install different versions, each are in a subfolder of Visual Studio.

However, Holotoolkit is relying on registry key, that is right with previous version of Visual Studio 2017 :

        public static string CalcMSBuildPath(string msBuildVersion)
        {
            using (Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey key = Microsoft.Win32.Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey(string.Format(@"Software\Microsoft\MSBuild\ToolsVersions\{0}", msBuildVersion)))
            {
                if (key == null)
                {
                    return null;
                }
                string msBuildBinFolder = key.GetValue("MSBuildToolsPath") as string;
                string msBuildPath = Path.Combine(msBuildBinFolder, "msbuild.exe");
                return msBuildPath;
            }
        }

The file https://github.com/Microsoft/HoloToolkit-Unity/blob/master/Assets/HoloToolkit/Build/Editor/BuildDeployTools.cs should be changed to take new MSBuild location into account.

Thanks

[StephenHodgson]

Ended up going going the route of vswhere like @thebanjomatic pointed out.

[jessemcculloch]

@LifeAlchemist - After replacing the files that you did, I also hard-coded the calcMSBuildPatch method in BuildDeployTools.cs to return the path to my MSBuild 15 instance. Mine is at C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Professional\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\msbuild.exe

Yours should be at a similar path, just replacing Professional with whatever version of VS2017 you are running, if it’s not professional.