You may receive a "Could not find file 'Microsoft.Windows.CommonLanguageRuntime" error message when you build a solution of a Visual Basic 2005 Windows Application project in Visual Studio 2005

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SYMPTOMS

When you build a solution of a Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 Windows Application project in Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, you may receive an error message that is similar to the following:

error MSB3113: Could not find file 'Microsoft.Windows.CommonLanguageRuntime, Version=2.0.50727.0'.

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CAUSE

This problem may occur if all the following conditions are true:

The solution contains an application that has a reference to another application in the same solution.
You publish the referenced application to a UNC share or to a Web page.

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WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, use a file reference instead of a project reference in the solution of the Visual Basic 2005 Windows Application project.

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STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.

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MORE INFORMATION

Steps to reproduce the problem

In Visual Studio 2005, create a Visual Basic Windows Application project.
Add a Visual Basic console application to the project that you created in step 1.
In the Visual Basic console application, add a reference to the project that you created in step 1.
Build the solution.
Publish the Visual Basic Windows Application project to a UNC share or to Web page.
Rebuild the solution.

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