No Windows Game option in XNA 4.0 VS2012

Question

I installed XNA 4.0 and used this method: How to install XNA game studio on Visual Studio 2012? to access XNA in vs2012.(I installed VC# 2010 express first.) Everything went fine, I could even open XNA game project and ran. But the new project menu did not show the Windows Game and Xbox360 Game option. Why are they missing?

Answer 1

I reinstalled and it's fixed. I think it's the installation path that causes this problem. VS2010 and VS2012 should be installed on the same disk. I have VS2012 installed on D:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0 and VS2010 reinstalled on D:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0 not the default C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0. Then install and copy XNA with the same old trick. Don't know why is that but it works like a charm. MonoGame is fine but it still needs support from XNA Content pipeline.

Answer 2

XNA is officially only supported on Visual Studio 2010.

XNA Game Studio 4.0 Refresh leverages the Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 development environment, extending it for game development. XNA Game Studio 4.0 Refresh works with any of the following Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 products.

• Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone
• Microsoft Visual C# 2010 Express Edition
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional Edition

^{http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb203916.aspx}

There are some tricks to "tweak" the XNA templates to work in Visual Studio 2012 and 2013.

• (For Windows 8 users) Install Games for Windows Live client. You just need to install it, no further input is required.
• Install Visual Studio 2013 or 2012
• Install Windows Phone SDK 7.1
  • This will install VS 2010 Express for Windows Phone and, with it, XNA
  • If by some reason the XNA installation fails, reinstall
  • Alternatively, you can install any Visual Studio 2010 and XNA standalone
• Copy XNA from VS2010 to VS2013
• Copy the folder named XNA Game Studio 4.0 from “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\common7\ide\extensions\Microsoft” to
  • For VS2013 C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\common7\ide\extensions\Microsoft
  • For VS2012 C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\common7\ide\extensions\Microsoft
• Open the extension.vsixmanifest file with your favourite text editor (with Administrator privileges), inside the copied XNA Game Studio 4.0 folder
• Change the supported Visual Studio version
  • Change this: <VisualStudio Version=”10.0″> to
    • For VS2013: <VisualStudio Version=”12.0″>
    • For VS2012: <VisualStudio Version=”11.0″>
• Tell VS to rebuild the Extensions cache
  • Run this command (Win+R):
    • For VS2013 “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe” /setup
    • For VS2012 “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe” /setup
  • If you get an error doing this, run it in a Command Prompt with Administrator privileges
  • This isn’t always necessary, specially if you have just installed Visual Studio

^{http://dementedvice.wordpress.com/2013/10/21/let-me-explain-install-xna-on-visual-studio-2013-and-2012/}