c# - Why can't I create Shared Project in Visual Studio 2015?

Question

I downloaded visual studio community 2015. I tried to create a Shared Project and am getting an error:

Content from Microsoft.Windows.UI.Xaml.CSharp.targets

<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
    <PropertyGroup Condition="'$(TargetPlatformVersion)'==''">
        <TargetPlatformVersion>8.0</TargetPlatformVersion>
    </PropertyGroup>

    <PropertyGroup Condition="'$(TargetPlatformIdentifier)' == 'UAP'">
        <RedirectionTarget>8.2</RedirectionTarget>
    </PropertyGroup>

    <PropertyGroup Condition="'$(RedirectionTarget)' == ''">
        <RedirectionTarget>$(TargetPlatformVersion)</RedirectionTarget>
    </PropertyGroup>

    <!-- Direct 8.0 projects to 8.1 targets to enable retargeting  -->
    <PropertyGroup Condition="'$(RedirectionTarget)' == '8.0'">
        <RedirectionTarget>8.1</RedirectionTarget>
    </PropertyGroup>

    <Import Project="$(RedirectionTarget)Microsoft.Windows.UI.Xaml.CSharp.targets" />
</Project>

I do not have folder with name 8.1

Answer 1

One workaround is to make the following edits:

Open the file %ProgramFiles(x86)%MSBuildMicrosoftVisualStudiov14.0CodeSharingMicrosoft.CodeSharing.CSharp.targets (for Visual Basic the file is Microsoft.CodeSharing.VisualBasic.targets) and look for the following entries around line 8 -

<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)MicrosoftWindowsXamlv$(VisualStudioVersion)Microsoft.Windows.UI.Xaml.CSharp.targets" Condition="Exists('$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)MicrosoftWindowsXamlv$(VisualStudioVersion)Microsoft.Windows.UI.Xaml.CSharp.targets')"/>
<Import Project="$(MSBuildBinPath)Microsoft.CSharp.Targets" Condition="!Exists('$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)MicrosoftWindowsXamlv$(VisualStudioVersion)Microsoft.Windows.UI.Xaml.CSharp.targets')" />    

Change these lines to the following -

<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)MicrosoftWindowsXamlv$(VisualStudioVersion)Microsoft.Windows.UI.Xaml.CSharp.targets" Condition="false"/>
<Import Project="$(MSBuildBinPath)Microsoft.CSharp.Targets" Condition="true" />

Basically, undo the conditional import of the Xaml based shared projects.

This is (believe it or not) the advice I received from MS for this issue. I think it's related to an unclean upgrade of the RC (or earlier) versions to RTM and the selection of different options during install.

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(Insert usual caveats about editing files that don't "belong" to you, take backups, and if you're not confident to make such edits, don't)