Auto-detection of Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0

[Sebt]

Anybody knows the list of registry keys QT Creator is testing to know if Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0 is installed (compiler auto-detection)? I have MSVC++2010 installed on my machine and Matlab detects it fine, but QT creator does not...

[mrjj]

@Sebt said:
hi and welcome
Did you install the version of Qt that supports 2010 ? ( old)
http://download.qt.io/archive/qt/5.5/5.5.0/qt-opensource-windows-x86-msvc2010-5.5.0.exe

[Sebt]

No, I use QT version brought by WinBuild (MinGW64) but it also has mkspecs for Visual Studio 2010. I am actually not planning to link to any QT library when compiling with Visual Studio 2010 compiler, I just need it for some specific projects.
It is really a matter of QT creator not auto-detecting that Visual Studio 2010 is installed since I managed to set up a very similar configuration on another machine: I would like to know what is tested by QT Creator to detect this software (registry keys, files, environment variables...).

[mrjj]

Ok. i see
I have never seen docs on what it uses to detect VS.
Adding a kit manually is not an option ?
http://doc.qt.io/qtcreator/creator-targets.html

[Sebt]

@mrjj You are right, this is a possible solution. Still I am puzzled why VS2010 is not auto-detected by Qt Creator (Matlab and Nvidia nvcc both detect it). This must be some crazy tests QT creator is perfoming in Windows registry...

[mrjj]

@Sebt
Im wondering if it does "detecting" when u enter the kit dialog or only
during installation.

Did u install 2010 first then Qt or reverse ?

[Sebt]

@mrjj I installed VS2010 first, but then partially uninstalled it. I think Qt Creator is not buggy, it is just that I slightly messed up my VS2010 install. I am just trying to understand what Qt Creator "expects" to validate auto-detection. If this info is not documented I will surely have a harsh time reverse engineering it...

[JKSH]

@Sebt said:

kit auto-detection

Kit = Compiler + Qt_Libraries

A kit will only be auto-detected if you have the relevant version of Qt installed.

What do you see under Tools -> Options -> Build & Run -> Compilers?

[Sebt]

Sorry, I meant compiler auto-detection. I will configure the kit manually.

[Sebt]

@mrjj I managed adding MS compiler manually, and then including it to a manual kit and it works. Still I would like to understand why auto-detection did not include it in the compiler list. Also I do not know how to configure that vcvarsall.bat be called with correct argument before launching compilation/linking. Any idea?

[mrjj]

@Sebt said:

vcvarsall.bat

Hi
@jksh talks about it here
https://forum.qt.io/topic/31702/does-qt-actually-call-vcvarsall-bat/4

[Sebt]

@mrjj Thanks, but my issue is that when you define a compiler manually you cannot fill in a field "initialization"... should the .bat script be then called from "Environment" in the kit itself, and if so how?

[mrjj]

@Sebt
Frankly I dont know how to add the init script if it dont pick it up it self.

Maybe @JKSH knows :)

[JKSH]

@mrjj said:

Maybe @JKSH knows :)

Thanks for your vote of confidence @mrjj, but I'm afraid I don't really know either ;-) The source code does, though:

https://code.woboq.org/qt5/qt-creator/src/plugins/projectexplorer/msvctoolchain.cpp.html#_ZN15ProjectExplorer8Internal20MsvcToolChainFactory32checkForVisualStudioInstallationERK7QString

It seems to be:

• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\SxS\VS7 for a 64-bit OS, and
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\SxS\VS7 for a 32-bit OS

If you're still stuck, try subscribing to the Qt Creator mailing list (http://lists.qt-project.org/mailman/listinfo/qt-creator) and asking there. The engineers of Qt Creator are active on that list.