c1010070: Failed to load and parse the manifest - c++

Question

I have an existing wxWidgets project which I am trying to compile under Visual Studio 2010 (the project was created probably with older version of Visual Studio - could be even VS2003). I compiled wxWidgets library (also included paths in my project). When compiling my project now, I get this error:
1>------ Build started: Project: Terminals, Configuration: Debug Win32 ------
1>Build started 8/24/2015 10:56:23 AM.
1>InitializeBuildStatus:
1> Touching "Debug\Terminals.unsuccessfulbuild".
1>ClCompile:
1> All outputs are up-to-date.
1>ResourceCompile:
1> All outputs are up-to-date.
1>ManifestResourceCompile:
1> All outputs are up-to-date.
1>Link:
1> All outputs are up-to-date.
1>Manifest:
1>
1>wx\msw\wx.manifest : general error c1010070: Failed to load and parse the manifest. The system cannot find the path specified.
1>
1>
1>Build FAILED.
1>
1>Time Elapsed 00:00:01.59
========== Build: 0 succeeded, 1 failed, 0 up-to-date, 0 skipped ==========
Can someone help?

Answer 1

This happens if your project's path has a space in it, for example in my case the project is within my Windows account, so the path begins with "C:\Users\Adam Reece...". I then get "C:\Users\Adam" within a "cannot find" like error when building the manifest.
This is 100% a bug with Visual Studio recently of which Microsoft refuses to recognise. You are not in the wrong for having a space in your path as it's been supported since Windows 95. However as a workaround you either need to make sure there are no spaces in the full path to your project, or disable generation of the manifest. (Project properties -> Linker -> Manifest File -> Generate Manifest -> Change to No (/MANIFEST:NO).)

Answer 2

Based on your description, I suggest you to validate your manifest file and make sure it is correct. You can use Manifestchk.vbs or “ mt.exe -manifest 1.manifest -validate_manifest “.
Moreover, from your error message, you need make sure the complier can find your manifest file configure your configuration correctly.
Go to “Configuration Properties -> Linker -> Manifest File”; turn the
“Generate Manifest” to “No”.
Go to “Configuration Properties -> Manifest Tool “; add your manifest
file path, like: (give mainfest file name like “f:/xxxx.manifest”) to
“Additional Manifest Files”; and turn the “Embed Manifest” to “No”.
Eventually, rebuild again.
If you have any more questions, please feel free to let me know.

Answer 3

This error message always happen when Visual Studio could not find the file. There are some potential causes:
Numbers or spaces in the project name
Project name too long
Started creating the project from a blank project that doesn't have
all of the parts.
I'd suggest trying each of the following to see if it fixes the issue- but backup your project/solution directory first.
A) Clean and rebuild the solution
B) Right click on the solution for the project (in Solution Explorer) and rename the solution to a very simple name (e.g., soln). Then do the same for the project (e.g., rename to proj). Do a rebuild all and see if the problem goes away. If it does you can rename the solution and project to something more meaningful.
C) Right click on the project and open it's properties. Go To Link | Manifest and turn off use of the manifest. Rebuild.
D) Create a new Win32 console project. Have Visual Studio create the initial CPP and .H files you need. Open your old source files and copy the code from those into the new files. Rebuild the new project.

Answer 4

I had the same problem and found the solution that DOES NOT require creating a new user profile...
Yes, it is caused by spaces in usernames. But why? Because mt.exe uses TEMP/TMP environment variables. On one of my machines, the username was with the old 8.3 format in TEMP (C:\users\gerson~1) and that worked. This gave me a hint as to how to adress the problem:
set your users' TEMP to some folder that has no spaces
set your users' TMP to some folder that has no spaces
Ensure you restart VS so that the settings changes take effect. Your build should work now ;)

Answer 5

I had this error together with msb3073. I solved the issue by modifying the project's vcxproj file, changing from:
<PostBuildEvent>
<Command>mt.exe -manifest DesignedForWindows7.manifest -i [...]
</Command>
</PostBuildEvent>
to
<AfterBuildEvent>
<Command>mt.exe -manifest DesignedForWindows7.manifest -i [...]
</Command>
</AfterBuildEvent>
where, in place of [...], there is some command line code that I just copied-pasted.
Be careful that there might be more than one such code block in the vcxproj file

Answer 6

UPDATE 02/07/21: Found a solution for Win10.0..... SDK
https://stackoverflow.com/a/49276285/16360714
I got c1010070: Failed to load and parse the manifest
because my Windows User Profile had a space in it e.g. C:\Users\ John Doe\ and I was trying to use UE4 with C++ and Visual Studio 2017, Win 8.1 SDK
FINAL SOLUTION AT END
Solution 0: CHange TMP and TEMP Windows environment variables to folders with no space. This could break other programs. I kept it changed though while trying other solutions.
Solution 1: Exclude C\User\John Doe ... folders from the project
Solution 2: Try to change your Windows Profile Folder Name (tutorials on YouTube)
Solution 3: Create a new Windows local account with no whitespace and use it for dev
Solution 1 Explanation
If you are using UE4, Makefile will be your Project Configuration default. So you won't have access to Linker or Manifest Tool Settings.
I was getting the following errors when building:
Severity Code Description Project File Line Suppression State
Error c1010070 Failed to load and parse the manifest. The system cannot find the file specified. VirtuPilotv3 C:\Users\John
Severity Code Description Project File Line Suppression State
Error LNK1327 failure during running mt.exe VirtuPilotv3 K:\VRDEVELOPMENT\Virtu-Pilot\Intermediate\ProjectFiles\LINK 1
1
Severity Code Description Project File Line Suppression State
Error MSB3073 The command "K:\VRDEVELOPMENT\UE_4.26\Engine\Build\BatchFiles\Build.bat VirtuPilotv3Editor Win64 Development -Project="K:\VRDEVELOPMENT\Virtu-Pilot\VirtuPilotv3.uproject" -WaitMutex -FromMsBuild" exited with code 6. VirtuPilotv3 C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\Common7\IDE\VC\VCTargets\Microsoft.MakeFile.Targets 44
I noticed the Macro $(PATH) in Property Page>General>Executable Directories contained a C:\ Users folder path "C:\Users\John Doe.dotnet\tools" to be specific.
So I added the .dotnet folder to my exclude directories and BINGO! I could build and open the editor. [1 VISUAL STUDIO WARNING]
Discovered C:\Users\John Doe.dotnet\tools is found under Windows "path"Environment Path Variables Image variable
I'll probably make a copy of the .dotnet folder to something like C:\VisualStudioCustom and add that folder as Windows Path New .dotnet folder set as path. This Should Solve the problem for all projects. As the new folder will automatically get added to Visual Studios Macro $(PATH). [IT ACTUALLY WORKED, NO VS ERRORS]