VS 2017 Build Tools failing with Error MSB4019: The imported project "D:\Microsoft.Cpp.Default.props" was not found - c++

Question

I'm building a new TFS build server and decided to use the VS 2017 Build Tools instead of installing the full versions of VS. When I attempt to build our C++ projects, it throws the following error:
Error MSB4019: The imported project "D:\Microsoft.Cpp.Default.props" was not found.
After many hours of research I'm no closer to resolving this issue. I tried adding the following registry settings but it did not help.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSBuild\ToolsVersions\14.0]
"VCTargetsPath"="$([MSBuild]::ValueOrDefault('$(VCTargetsPath)','$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V140\'))"
"VCTargetsPath11"="$([MSBuild]::ValueOrDefault('$(VCTargetsPath11)','$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V110\'))"
"VCTargetsPath14"="$([MSBuild]::ValueOrDefault('$(VCTargetsPath14)','$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V140\'))"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSBuild\ToolsVersions\14.0\11.0]
"VCTargetsPath"="$([MSBuild]::ValueOrDefault('$(VCTargetsPath)','$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V110\'))"
"VCTargetsPath11"="$([MSBuild]::ValueOrDefault('$(VCTargetsPath11)','$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V110\'))"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSBuild\ToolsVersions\14.0\14.0]
"VCTargetsPath"="$([MSBuild]::ValueOrDefault('$(VCTargetsPath)','$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V140\'))"
"VCTargetsPath11"="$([MSBuild]::ValueOrDefault('$(VCTargetsPath11)','$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V110\'))"
"VCTargetsPath14"="$([MSBuild]::ValueOrDefault('$(VCTargetsPath14)','$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V140\'))"
I'm guessing Microsoft's installer is broken for this product. Is there a standard fix for this error or should I scrap my efforts and simply install the full versions?
In the project file, I found this entry:
<Import Project="$(VCTargetsPath)\Microsoft.Cpp.Default.props" />
So, I guess this means that the variable VSTargetsPath is somehow pointing to the root of the D: drive but I haven't got a clue where that value is being set. Our current build server does not have an environment variable set named VSTargetsPath, but it does have the missing registry entries. It also has full versions of VS installed.

Answer 1

VS 2017 Build Tools failing with Error MSB4019: The imported project “D:\Microsoft.Cpp.Default.props” was not found
Try to pass VCTargetsPath explicitly as property to msbuild from your build configuration:
Edit the build definition for the build.
Click the process tab.
In the Advanced section, set the MSBuild Arguments to include the following property:
/p:VCTargetsPath="C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\xxx\Common7\IDE\VC\VCTargets\"
Save the build definition.
Note: You should change the value of VCTargetsPath to the location of the VCTargets folder.
Or pass VisualStudioVersion as property to msbuild:/p:VisualStudioVersion=15.0
If you are interesting in the value of $(VCTargetsPath), you can check following threads for some more details:
Can't find registry entries for Visual Studio 2017
Visual Studio Locator
Over the years Visual Studio could be discovered using registry keys,
but with recent changes to the deployment and extensibility models a
new method is needed to discover possibly more than once installed
instance. These changes facilitate a smaller, faster default install
complimented by on-demand install of other workloads and components.
vswhere is designed to be a redistributable, single-file executable
that can be used in build or deployment scripts to find where Visual
Studio - or other products in the Visual Studio family - is located.
For example, if you know the relative path to MSBuild, you can find
the root of the Visual Studio install and combine the paths to find
what you need.
You can emit different formats for information based on what your
scripts can consume, including plain text, JSON, and XML. Pull
requests may be accepted for other common formats as well.
vswhere is included with the installer as of Visual Studio 2017
version 15.2 and later, and can be found at the following location:
%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer\vswhere.exe.