CODEWITHSUNDEEP
asp.net-corevisual-studio-2017
user428745
user428745

Reputation: 853

Cannot add reference on Visual Studio 2017 project

I'm using Visual Studio 2017 and trying to add a new reference between two projects, however I get following error when I click on "Add Reference..."

Cannot find an instance of the Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Interop.IVsReferenceManager service.

The first project is Asp.Net Core, and the second project is a .NET Core Class Library.

Upvotes: 7

Views: 8592

Answers (5)

Krzysztof Gapski
Krzysztof Gapski

Reputation: 628

I had similar error after migrating Visual Studio 2017 project to Visual Studio 2019. In my case I used Visual Studio Installer and under features there was Visual Studio SDK which was unchecked. After installing that, problem gone.

Upvotes: 1

Terry H
Terry H

Reputation: 347

In my case it was just easier to go to NuGet and Browse for Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Interop.11.0 then add.

Upvotes: 0

Rokive
Rokive

Reputation: 825

=>Run the "developer Command Prompt as administrator"

=>Goto the path "CD C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\20XX\Enterprise\Common7\IDE\PublicAssemblies"

N.B : 20XX=2017,2019 etc and Enterprise=Enterprise,Community etc

=>Run gacutil -i Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Interop.11.0.dll

=>Restart your pc

Upvotes: 1

TernaryTopiary
TernaryTopiary

Reputation: 436

I had this issue with all my projects after installing another version of Visual Studio.

I fixed it by following 宝宝徐's advice here, namely running the following commands in command prompt: 

CD C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\Common7\IDE\PublicAssemblies
gacutil -i Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Interop.11.0.dll

I found out that on my machine (Windows 10 x64), apparently gacutil is no longer bundled with new versions of Windows, so retrieved it from a previously installed Microsoft Windows SDK which I found at C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\Bin, although I think you may need to install it first. There are some thoughts here about finding gacutil on Windows 10.

After this, I was able to add references to projects again.

Hope that helps someone.

Upvotes: 14

TerribleDev
TerribleDev

Reputation: 2245

You can go into the csproj of the project you wish to add the reference to and add the following xml

<ItemGroup>
 <ProjectReference Include="..\path\to\your\other.csproj" />
</ItemGroup>

That will add the reference to the other project.

Upvotes: 4

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