Finding the Visual Studio Command Prompts in Visual Studio 2012

Finding the Visual Studio Command Prompts in Visual Studio 2012

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Jennifer Leaf [MSFT]

19 Apr 2013 2:59 PM

• 19

If you’re using Visual Studio 2012 on Windows 8, you may be looking for the Visual Studio Command Prompt shortcuts.  These shortcuts are installed by Visual Studio to run scripts that configure the command line environment to use particular sets of Visual Studio tools, or to use specific versions of the Visual C++ compiler from the command line.

These shortcuts are installed with Visual Studio 2012, but only the “Developer Command Prompt for VS2012” (which is equivalent to the shortcut for the x86 native tools) is pinned to the Start screen by default.  The command prompts for the x64 cross tools, the x64 native tools, and the ARM cross tools are installed but aren’t pinned.

To find these shortcuts, you can search for them at the Start screen (just type “VS2012 command prompt” without the quotes while you’re on the Start screen):

If you want to keep them visible on your Start screen, you can right-click on the tile and choose “Pin to Start”:

(Please note: depending on the version of Visual Studio 2012 you have installed, you may not see the same list of command prompt shortcuts.  Not all shortcuts are installed with Visual Studio Express versions.)