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Visual Studio project

Host Platform Support
macOS Windows Linux
x86‑64 arm64 x86 x86‑64 arm64 x86 x86‑64 arm arm64
{{ ci_tested }}

Briefcase supports creating a full Visual Studio project for a Windows app. This project can then be used to build the stub app binary with the briefcase build command, or directly from Visual Studio.

You can specify the use of the Windows Visual Studio project backend by using briefcase <command> windows visualstudio.

Most apps will have no need to use the Visual Studio project format - the [Windows app folder][windows-app-folder] format provides everything that is required to run most Windows apps. The Visual Studio project format is useful if you need to customize the stub binary that is used to start your app.

All Windows apps, regardless of output format, use the same icon formats, have the same set of configuration and runtime options, have the same permissions, and have the same platform quirks. See [the documentation on Windows apps][windows] for more details.

Pre-requisites

Building the Visual Studio project requires that you install Visual Studio. Visual Studio Community Edition can be downloaded for free from Microsoft. You can also use the Professional or Enterprise versions if you have them.

Briefcase will auto-detect the location of your Visual Studio installation, provided one of the following three things are true:

  1. You install Visual Studio in the standard location in your Program Files folder.
  2. MSBuild.exe is on your path.
  3. You define the environment variable MSBUILD that points at the location of your MSBuild.exe executable.

When you install Visual Studio, there are many optional components. You should ensure that you have installed the following:

  • .NET Desktop Development
    • All default packages
  • Desktop Development with C++
    • All default packages
    • C++/CLI support for v143 build tools
    • MSVC v143 VS 2022 C++ ARM64/x64 build tools

Application configuration

Any configuration option specified in the tool.briefcase.app.<appname>.windows section of your pyproject.toml file will be used by the Windows Visual Studio project. To specify a setting that will only be used by a Visual Studio project and not other Windows output formats, put the setting in a tool.briefcase.app.<appname>.windows.visualstudio section of your pyproject.toml.