Compile Setup project with devenv.com - "ERROR: Unable to update the dependencies of the project"

visual-studio-2010 devenv vdproj
Orad SA picture Orad SA · Oct 2, 2011 · Viewed 39.7k times · Source

I have a Setup deployment project in VS 2010. The project compiles perfectly with the GUI interface of VS 2010, but any time I trying to compile it via vs cmd (devenv.com) it comes up with this error:

ERROR: Unable to update the dependencies of the project.

Notice that there is NO dll that mentioned in the error (e.g. the error does NOT contain "The dependencies for the object ‘xxx’ cannot be determined").

Please do not tell me to clean all the files in this setup and start from ground up - this is not a real solution! I have 5 projects with this exact error, and I don't want to re-arrange each one. More then that, this does not promise me that the problem will not re-occur in the future.

Thanks very much!

Answer

John Kroetch picture John Kroetch · Jun 25, 2014

I used to rebuild these installer projects from scratch when they stopped working (for whatever reason), but I've found a much much quicker (and less error-prone) workaround. It works for me. Maybe it will work for you.

  1. Remove the Installer project from your solution through the IDE interface
  2. Add the Installer project back into your solution (Add > Existing Project...)
  3. Rebuild

It works practically every time for me...

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