Intel® Software Development Tools Integration to Microsoft Visual Studio* 2017 Issues

We received customer reports regarding Intel® Parallel Studio XE (version 2017, 2018, 2019) installation or integration issues with Microsoft Visual Studio* 2017 update 3 and later. The following known issues have been identified and corresponding workarounds are provided. We are working on getting appropriate fixes. 

Please follow the workarounds provided below for now. When the fixes are available, this article will be updated accordingly.

Environment: Microsoft* Windows, Visual Studio 2017

Affected products: Intel® Parallel Studio XE 2017 Update 4, Intel® Parallel Studio XE 2018 and later versions, Intel® System Studio Update 3 and later.

Problem Description :

Please find the list of all known integration issues below. Issues are expected to be fixed with the latest 15.3.3 version of Microsoft* Visual Studio 2017 and upcoming Intel® Parallel Studio XE/System Studio versions. Issues are still observed with available Intel® Parallel Studio XE/System Studio versions, e.g. with Intel® Parallel Studio XE 2017 Update 4 and Intel® Parallel Studio XE 2018.

Note that to use the Intel® Compilers with Microsoft Visual Studio* 2017 you must customize the install and enable additional workloads. Please refer to this article for details.

#1 -- Installation of Intel® Parallel Studio XE with Microsoft* Visual Studio 2017 integration hangs and fails

Installation of Intel® Parallel Studio XE with Microsoft* Visual Studio 2017 integration hangs and fails on some systems. The problem is intermittent and not reproducible on every system. Any attempts to repair it fails with the message "Incomplete installation of Microsoft Visual Studio* 2017 is detected". Note, in some cases the installation may complete successfully with no error/crashes, however, the integration to VS2017 is not installed.

Workaround: Note that with Intel® Parallel Studio XE 2017 Update 4 there is no workaround for this integration problem. The following workaround is implemented in Intel® Parallel Studio XE 2017 Update 5. It is implemented in Intel® Parallel Studio XE 2018 as well.

Integrate the Intel Parallel Studio XE components manually. You need to run all the files from the corresponding folders:

• C++/Fortran Compiler IDE:
  • <installdir>/ide_support_2018/VS15/Common Tools/*.vsix
  • <installdir>/ide_support_2018/VS15/C++/*.vsix
  • <installdir>/ide_support_2018/VS15/Fortran/*.vsix
• Amplifier: <installdir>/VTune Amplifier 2018/amplxe_vs2017-integration.vsix
• Advisor: <installdir>/Advisor 2018/advi_vs2017-integration.vsix
• Inspector: <installdir>/Inspector 2018/insp_vs2017-integration.vsix
• Debugger: <InstallDir>/ide_support_2018/MIC/*.vsix
                    <InstallDir>/ide_support_2018/CPUSideRDM/*.vsix

Note that for 2017 version you need to use folders with 2017 instead of 2018, e.g. ide_support_2017, VTune Amplifier 2017, etc.

#2 -- Errors within Visual Studio 2017 after Intel® Parallel Studio XE/Intel® System Studio uninstallation

Different errors are observed within Visual Studio 2017 if not all parts of Intel® Parallel Studio XE/Intel® System Studio were uninstalled. Examples of such errors:

• Error message appears while building any C/C++ program within Visual Studio 2017 after Intel® Parallel Studio XE/Intel® System Studio uninstallation:
  Could not load file or assembly 'Intel.Misc.Utilities,
  Version=18.0.15.0 Culture=neutral,
  PublicKeyToken=5caa3becd8c4c9ee' or one of its dependencies.
  The system cannot find the file specified.,
• Error message when invoking Visual Studio 2017:
  The 'IntelCommonPkg' package did not load correctly.
  The problem may have been caused by a configuration change or by the installation of another extension. You can get more information by examining the file …
• Remnants of Intel® Parallel Studio XE/Intel® System Studio in Tools>Options:
  Remaining entry in Tools>Options:
                    > Intel_Composer_XE
                     General
                     Compilers (win32 tab present, but empty)
                     Guided Auto Parallelism (…)

Workaround:

• Launch "Visual Studio Installer"
• For Visual Studio ... 2017
• Select [Modify]
• On the right side of the screen under the heading, "Summary", open the category, "Individual components"
• Uncheck all entries that begin with or contain "Intel(R) ..." including “Common tools for Intel compiler projects”
• Select [Modify] to have it make the changes
• Launch Visual Studio 2017
• Select menu items, “Tools > Extensions and Updates”
• Uninstall any remaining entries (components) beginning with "Intel(R) ..."
• Ensure that there are no remaining entries (components) containing "Intel(R) ...". Otherwise uninstall them.

#3 -- VS2017 installation is not complete message during the installation of IPSXE/ISS

The installation displays a dialog message saying that VS2017 installation is not complete. One of the other symptom is that there is no Intel compiler context switch menu to change project to use Intel Compiler within Visual Studio 2017.
Workaround: Reinstall Visual Studio 2017 and then reinstall Intel® Parallel Studio XE/Intel® System Studio.

#4 -- Integration to Visual Studio 2017 version 15.3 on Windows 10

On some Windows 10 systems with Visual Studio 2017 version 15.3 installed, after installation of Intel® Parallel Studio XE/Intel® System Studio with integration into Visual Studio, there is no indication of product being integrated except Extension Manager (“Tools > Extensions and Updates”) shows Intel extensions.
Workaround: Launch "Visual Studio Installer" and repair Visual Studio installation. Then repair Intel® Parallel Studio XE/Intel® System Studio installation.

#5.1 -- Installation of Intel® Parallel Studio XE/Intel® System Studio into Visual Studio 2017 version 15.3 reports errors once installation is completed

Visual Studio 2017 version 15.3 integration failed to install correctly. Some of Intel® Parallel Studio XE/Intel® System Studio components may not be available in Visual Studio 2017.
Workaround: All components are installed successfully, no actions required.

• Installed Intel® Parallel Studio XE 2017 Update 4 / Intel® System Studio 2017 Update 3 with integration to Visual Studio 2017. 
• Visual Studio 2017 upgraded to Update 3 (15.3.3) or later.
• Installation of Intel® Parallel Studio 2018 completes with the error, integration to Visual Studio is not successful.

#6 -- Existing integration to Visual Studio 2017 is broken once Visual Studio upgraded

Visual Studio 2017 or any update is installed and Intel® Parallel Studio XE/Intel® System Studio is integrated. An attempt to upgrade Visual Studio 2017 (for example from 15.0 to 15.3.1, or 15.3.1 to 15.3.2, etc…) results in different issues, e.g.:

• when building C/C++ projects with Intel C++ compiler: C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V140\Platforms\Win32\PlatformToolsets\Intel C++ Compiler 18.0\Toolset.targets(127,5): error : Could not expand ICInstallDir variable. Platform toolset may be set to an invalid version number.1>Done building project "ConsoleApplication1.vcxproj" -- FAILED.
• Project Properties are empty
• Code coverage summary is not shown when you run Code Coverage from Tools > Intel Compiler > Code Coverage…
• Other odd  behavior with Intel tools integrated with Visual Studio 2017

Workaround: close Visual Studio and run Intel® Parallel Studio XE/Intel® System Studio repair.

#7 -- Intel Getting Started Guides can not be opened from Visual Studio 2017

Intel Getting Started Guides are not opened from Visual Studio 2017 in Microsoft Edge browser.
Clicking on Help > Intel Compilers and Libraries > Intel® C++ Compiler | Integrated Performance Primitives | Math Kernel Library etc., opens MSDN page instead of getting started guide.

Workaround: change system default browser to Internet Explorer, then change it back to Microsoft Edge. 

#8 -- Visual Studio 2017 integration failed to install correctly on offline system 

• Offline system (no Internet connection)
• Latest version of Visual Studio 2017 installed
• Installation of Intel® Parallel Studio XE 2018 completes with the error that integration failed to install correctly.

The problem happens due to failure of Microsoft* installer while checking certificates on the current machine. Following certificates are required to be available on the system:

• COMODO RSA Certification Authority
• Intel External Issuing CA 7B
• COMODO RSA Extended Validation Code Signing CA

The installer can not download corresponding certificates during the installation with no Internet connection. Integration to Visual Studio 2017 is not installed in this case. To check that the issue is due to missing certificates you need to verify that the required certificates installed on the system.

It is possible to check it using Microsoft* Windows mmc tool:

1. Run 'mmc' command from the command line prompt.
2. Go to 'File -> Add/Remove Snap-in...', select Certificates in the list of available snap-ins and click Add.
3. Then you should choose Computer account and click Next. Finally, click Finish.
4. Open a 'Trusted Root Certification Authorities' certificates and check that COMODO RSA Certification Authority is available
5. Open an 'Intermediate Certification Authorities' certificates and check that Intel External Issuing CA 7B and COMODO RSA Extended Validation Code Signing CA are available

Workaround: install missing certificates on your offline system. Note that certificates are available in the installation packages.

Right click on the installation executable file, then go to 'Digital Signatures' tab, select Intel(R) Software Development Products and click Details, View Certificate in the new window. Install Certificate option may be used for certificate installation. Please set Local Machine store location while installing certificate. Note that installation of Intel External Issuing CA 7B certificate will automatically install COMODO RSA Certification Authority certificate.

It is also possible to download required certificates and install on the offline system. 

#9 -- Cannot Find "stdint.h" after Upgrade to Visual Studio 2017

When running Visual Studio 2017 C++ compiler under Intel(R) C++ Compiler environment, or Visual Studio 2017 solution contains mixed projects with both Intel compiler and Visual Studio C++ compiler may encounter 

fatal error C1083: Cannot open include file: '../../vc/include/stdint.h': No such file or directory

Please refer to this article for more details on root cause and workaround.

#10 -- Long Intel® Parallel Studio XE installation

There is an issue with extremely long Intel Parallel Studio XE installation. It may take up to 5 hours to complete. The reason is that there are cases where the Microsoft* Visual Studio installer  need to ask Windows to install and/or configure a component.  For example, some workloads need ensure a missing KB update is installed.  
Other cases are where a particular workload needs to have a Windows Feature turned on.  
In all these cases Visual Studio Installer calls to Windows through the DISM.exe console app, passing the needed arguments.  If there is a corruption within the Windows subsystems then Windows tool returning an error. This also means that components in VS that depend on these packages are not able to install and execute.  

Workaround: The following is a series of troubleshooting steps provided by Microsoft* to help resolve the underlying DISM issue.  

1. Run the following command:  DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth
   Note: It might take several minutes for the command to complete
2. Run the following command:  sfc /scannow
   Note: It might take several minutes for the command to complete
3. Enable TrustedInstaller
   • sc config trustedinstaller start=auto
   • reboot the system

This workaround should help with long installation issue and installation should work significantly faster.

#11 -- Visual Studio 2017 hangs during creation of new C++/Fortran project

On some systems Visual Studio 2017 can hang during creation of new C++/Fortran project when Intel C++/Fortran Compiler integration is installed.

Workaround: clean the Component Model Cache by deleting all files in the following folder:

C:\Users\<your_username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\VisualStudio\15.0_*>\ComponentModelCache

#12 -- Visual Studio 2017 hangs during opening projects from file explorer

User can encounter the issue with freezing of VS2017 during opening projects from file explorer when Intel C++/Fortran Compiler integration is installed.

Workaround: open a project from Visual Studio.

#13 -- Optimization reports are not shown in Visual Studio 2017

In Visual Studio 2017 with Intel C++/Fortran compiler integration installed, optimization reports don't work as expected if solution opened from file explorer (Optimization notes are not shown up, “Compiler Optimization Report” and “Compiler Inline Report” tool windows are empty).

Workaround: open a solution from Visual Studio.

#14 -- Uninstallation of Intel tools integrated to Visual Studio 2017 fails on offline system

The issue is observed on Microsoft Windows* 10 (1809 (10.0.017763.1 ), 1803 (17134.254) , 1803 (17134.1),; 1803 (17134.345)) with installed Visual Studio 2017 versions 15.7.x  or 15.8.x (no issue on 15.6.7 and early) and no internet connection.  Intel® Parallel Studio XE/Intel® System Studio successfully installed and integrated to Visual Studio 2017.

An attempt to uninstall the product (Intel® Parallel Studio XE/Intel® System Studio) fails on the uninstallation of Visual Studio 2017 integration which should be done by the Visual Studio 2017 installer. The reason is that the vsixinstaller.exe requires internet connection for removing VSIX packages. There is an error produced by vsixinstaller.exe in the log file:

Pre-check verification: You're not connected to the internet. You might want to check your connection

Intel tools are finally removed from the system, however, integration from Visual Studio 2017 is not and this results in many error messages while trying to open a Visual Studio after the uninstallation.

Workaround: there is no workaround available. Fix is planned to be available in 15.9 version of Visual Studio 2017.

Note that root causes of the most issues were identified and reported to Microsoft*. We are working with Microsoft* to fix all issues in the upcoming updates.

There may be different reasons of integration issues and failures. We are documenting all cases and providing to Microsoft for further root-cause analysis.

If your problem is not described in this article or suggested workaround doesn't work then please report the problem to Intel through the Intel® Developer Zone Forums or Online Service Center. You will need to supply the installation log file and error message from Microsoft installer.