Error locating adb.exe when running Visual Studio 2015 RC and MS Android emulator

Question

I'm using VS 2015 RC, and I'm writing a cross platform mobile application. I have all the normal tools (java, android sdk, xamarin, cordova, etc.) installed and working. All the development is going well. I can debug just fine. Windows Phone 8.1 emulator run and debugs great. iOS simulator runs and debugs great.

When I try to run the MS Android Emulator (debug from VS), my project builds successfully (.apk gets created), and the Android emulator launches and starts the emulator OS just fine.

However, after the MS Android emulator starts, I get a pop up saying "Could not locate Android Debug Bridge (adb.exe)". My application never shows up on the emulator screen, and VS tells me deployment failed.

adb.exe is installed and working just fine (D:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools\adb.exe). I can go to command prompt, and execute it from anywhere (it's in my system PATH). ADB will work generically thru command prompt, detect devices, and everything just fine normally. It's only thru VS does it error out.

Where could VS be looking for adb.exe at? Could it be related to me choosing to install the Android SDK (including tools like adb.exe) on my D: drive (not my C:)?

Answer 1

Visual Studio uses a registry key to identify where the Android SDK is installed. Go to Run > regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Android SDK Tools. The "Path" entry is what VS uses to find the SDK, so you may need to modify it to match where your SDK is installed. Also make sure that your android-sdk folder has \platform-tools\adb.exe