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What's new in MSBuild 17.0

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This article describes significant updates in MSBuild 17.0. For the detailed release notes, see MSBuild 17.0.0.

MSBuild 17.0 shipped with Visual Studio 2022 and .NET 6.0.

Changed path

MSBuild is installed in the \Current folder under each version of Visual Studio, and the executables are in the \Bin subfolder. For example, the path to MSBuild.exe installed with Visual Studio 2022 Community is C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\MSBuild\Current\Bin\MSBuild.exe You can also use the following PowerShell module to locate MSBuild: vssetup.powershell.

Changed properties

The following MSBuild properties have been updated due to the new version number.

  • MSBuildToolsVersion for this version of the tools remains "Current". The assembly version is the same as in Visual Studio 2017 and Visual Studio 2019, which is 15.1.0.0.

  • VisualStudioVersion for this version of the tools is "17.0"

64-bit

MSBuild.exe previously had both 32-bit and 64-bit versions, but now, the 64-bit version is the default. Visual Studio 2022 uses the 64-bit version of MSBuild for all builds. The 32-bit version is still available but we recommend switching all builds to the 64-bit version.

For task owners, this means that when MSBuild loads your task, it will try to load it in a 64-bit process. We recommend that you consider updating your tasks to run in a 64-bit process, but for compatibility, you can tell MSBuild that your task runs as 32-bit only in their UsingTask.

Performance improvements

MSBuild is faster! The focus of this release has been to improve performance for many common scenarios. MSBuild 17.0 can build larger projects, faster.

.NET versions

MSBuild (and Visual Studio) now targets .NET Framework 4.7.2 and .NET 6.0. If you wish to use new MSBuild API features, your assembly must also upgrade, but existing code will continue to work.

Logs

Binary logs are smaller and have more information.

In MSBuild 17.8 and later, try the new Terminal Logger (-terminalLogger or -tl option on the command line) for improved console output.

Breaking changes

  • The method GetType() can no longer be called in property functions.
  • MSBuild for .NET targets .NET 6.

Other behavior changes

  • MSBuildCopyContentTransitively is now on by default, ensuring consistency in output folders on incremental builds.

For more changes in this version, see the detailed release notes and for changes in MSBuild versions that you can opt out of, see change waves.

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