Fatal error: "No Target Architecture" in Visual Studio

Question

When I try to compile my c++ project using Visual Studio 2010 in either Win32 or x64 mode I get the following error:

>C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\include\winnt.h(135): fatal error C1189: #error : "No Target Architecture"

My preprocessor definitions say WIN32;_DEBUG;_CONSOLE;%(PreprocessorDefinitions)

What is causing this error and how do I fix it?

// winnt.h: lines 127-136, MSVS says this is an inactive preprocessor block
#if defined(_WIN64)

#if defined(_AMD64_)
#define PROBE_ALIGNMENT( _s ) TYPE_ALIGNMENT( DWORD )
#elif defined(_IA64_)
#define PROBE_ALIGNMENT( _s ) (TYPE_ALIGNMENT( _s ) > TYPE_ALIGNMENT( DWORD ) ? \
                              TYPE_ALIGNMENT( _s ) : TYPE_ALIGNMENT( DWORD ))
#else
#error "No Target Architecture"
#endif

Update: I created a new msvs project and copied my code to it. I no longer have error : "No Target Architecture", but now I have a bunch of compile errors involving winnt.h and winbase.h and no compile errors involving any of my files. Is it possible these files are corrupted? Do I need to reinstall MSVS 2010?

Update 2: So I narrowed down my problem and found that it is #include <WinDef.h> that is causing all of my compile errors with winnt.h but I still don't know how to fix it.

Answer 1

Use #include <windows.h> instead of #include <windef.h>.

From the windows.h wikipedia page:

There are a number of child header files that are automatically included with windows.h. Many of these files cannot simply be included by themselves (they are not self-contained), because of dependencies.

windef.h is one of the files automatically included with windows.h.