Hello!  Very old question here, but I had the same problem, and have spent about 3 weeks trying to solve it.

I solved it, finally, so I thought I would publicize what I discovered.  Here it is:

The problem is that this error message is very vague: "Failed to locate ResGen.exe and unable to compile plug-in resource file..."  Well, Visual Studio, exactly where did you look for resgen.exe?  This kind of information is not printed in the error message.

The solution to this is to run msbuild.exe from the command line, including a few parameters.  Click on the "Start" button of Windows and type 'cmd'.  This will bring up a command line prompt.

Here is what you type into the command line prompt:

 "C:/Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v4.0.3.0319/MSBuild.exe C:/Users/Michael/Plugin.csproj -fl -flp:logfile="C:/Users/Michael/Desktop/error_log.log";verbosity=diagnostic"

To make it more general, what is being input is:

The complete path to MSBuild.exe (space) The complete path to your *.csproj file (space) -fl -flp:logfile=(where you would like your logfile to be saved);verbosity=diagnostic

When you press enter, MSBuild.exe will try to compile your *.csproj file, but will fail, just as Visual Studio fails.  The only difference is, this time a log file, detailing the error, will be created.  If you open that log file and look somewhere near the bottom, you will find some lines that resemble the following:

We can see that MSBuild looked in 5 separate locations for "ResGen.exe," but, unable to find it, gave up. So, just edit your Windows Registry (by typing 'regedit' after you click the "Start" button on Windows) so that "ResGen.exe" can be found.

Next time, when you click "Build" from Visual Studio, Visual Studio should be able to find ResGen.exe, and there will be no problems!

Hi, I'm having the same issue, while trying to build a project for Studio2017- with SDK 2017 too.

However, I am using Visual Studio Community 2019 - but I guess this should not be an issue.

I tried the solutions proposed above, to edit the registry - so far no good

Anyone here building for 2017 with success?

Hi Loic, 

Unfortunately this can be quite a pain. It took me a couple of months off and on until I finally got it, but it is possible! I am building now stably with success.

I am using Visual Studio 2017 and Trados Studio 2017 with .NET 4.6.1.

The path that worked for me was C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v10.0A\bin

You can look here https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2731365/running-msbuild-fails-to-read-sdktoolspath/56640450#comment103427496_56640450 for additional data, specifically the post from todbott.

Hope this helps!

I've tried all of the above plus several other solutions from other portals - still nothing. The resgen error keeps appearing. My config is Parallels 15 + Windows 10 + VS Community. My guess is there are some discrepancies between .NET versions, but after wasting the entire day to make it work, I'm pretty much nowhere.

Hello, got same issue today on new PC. All you need is to install NET Framework 4.6.2 targeting pack in the Visual Studio installer. It solves an issue.

Hello Eugene

I happen to have the same issue today, but I am still getting this problem with VS 2019 Community Edition + .Net Developer Packs 4.6.2 and 4.7.1 :-( 

I'm having the same issue. I've attempted all the solutions proposed above but still no luck.

Hi Ziad,

I hope that you are doing well.

I just installed VS2019 and I am running in the problem again too. Did you manage to solve this? I tried the solutions described above but it does not help.

Regards,

Laurent

Sorin Irimias, Romulus Crisan (former member), maybe you can help on this one? I tried changing several registry keys but it did not help. Thank you in advance for your support.

From the Visual Studio 2019 installer please add the Microsoft.Net.Component.4.7.2.SDK. This should fix the issue. Also please make sure to update to the latest version of Visual Studio 2019.

Hi Romulus Crisan (former member), thank you for your prompt reply. I just installed but it did not help. On the other hand, I am no longer sure that by registry keys have the right values. Could you please let me know which keys should contain which folder paths? Thanks!

Hi Laurent,

The registry key depends a bit on your os version and machine configuration. In order to properly understand where msbuild is looking and not founding the resgen.exe I suggest to run msbuild directly and not from Visual Studio. For information Visual Studio doesn't build the projects it actually rely on the msbuild tool. To run the project manually you can do the following:

1. Open command line
2. run the following command "{PathToMsbuild}/MSBuild.exe {PathToCSProj}/Plugin.csproj -fl -flp:logfile="{PathToLogFile}/error_log.log";verbosity=diagnostic"
3. PathToMbuild can be found using this information- https://github.com/microsoft/vswhere/wiki/Find-MSBuild
4. This should fail with the same error
5. Search for the error_log.log in the location you specified
6. Search for "Failed to locate ResGen.exe"
7. Above you should find the keys msbuild tried to use.
8. Verify each key for the InstallationFolder if it exists or if it does if resgen.exe is actually in there.
9. Replace with a path that has resgen.exe, probably from the 4.7.2  SDK folder. 

Hi Laurent,

The registry key depends a bit on your os version and machine configuration. In order to properly understand where msbuild is looking and not founding the resgen.exe I suggest to run msbuild directly and not from Visual Studio. For information Visual Studio doesn't build the projects it actually rely on the msbuild tool. To run the project manually you can do the following:

1. Open command line
2. run the following command "{PathToMsbuild}/MSBuild.exe {PathToCSProj}/Plugin.csproj -fl -flp:logfile="{PathToLogFile}/error_log.log";verbosity=diagnostic"
3. PathToMbuild can be found using this information- https://github.com/microsoft/vswhere/wiki/Find-MSBuild
4. This should fail with the same error
5. Search for the error_log.log in the location you specified
6. Search for "Failed to locate ResGen.exe"
7. Above you should find the keys msbuild tried to use.
8. Verify each key for the InstallationFolder if it exists or if it does if resgen.exe is actually in there.
9. Replace with a path that has resgen.exe, probably from the 4.7.2  SDK folder. 

Hi Romulus Crisan (former member),

Thank you very much for your detailed instructions as they really helped to solve the problem.

The log generated by MS Build showed that MS BUILD was looking in the following keys:

None of these existed in the registry (Only 4.7.2 and 4.8 for NETFXSDK and v10 under Windows)!

I installed the Microsoft.Net.Component.4.6.2.SDK which generated the keys for NETFXSDK and after that I could build my plugin with success.

Thanks again, I would have never found it without your support.

Have a great week-end. Laurent