Visual Studio thinks `Microsoft Web Developer Tools` is installed

Question

Symptoms

• Visual Studio syntax highlighter and Intellisense for Javascript and Razor views are not working.

Answer 1

I didn't know I had this problem until I opened an MVC project with Razor views and didn't have syntax highlighter and Intellisense. I was lucky to read your question because the symptoms are the same and so is the conclusion. And unfortunately none of the answers solves the problem. But it did help me to find the answer, or what worked for me.

What did the trick was installing .NET Core 1.0.0 (DotNetCore.1.0.0.RC2-Runtime-x64 and DotNetCore.1.0.0.RC2-VS2015Tools.Preview1). I am pretty sure that this is enough to solve the issue. But since I tried all kinds of things, it is possible that another action is required. In that case, continue reading below the images.

When I start a new project this opens the following dialog:

Selecting ASP.NET Web Application (.NET Framework) opens the dialog with the projects I was looking for.

The syntax highlighter and Intellisense are also working for Razor views.

I do not know what caused the problem in the first place. Is the installation incomplete, is there a conflict with other software or did I do something that caused this?

Visual Studio 2012 is installed on my machine as well. I installed and uninstalled VS2015 (pro and community version) and then installed vs2015 Community on multiple volumes. On uninstalling I did use /Force and removed several folders manually.

Microsoft ASP.NET 5 RC Update 1 is also installed, but repairing this did not solve the issue. Also installing Asp.Net Web Framework tools 2015 didn't change anything. I copied templates to all template folders I could find (perhaps an issue with installing on multiple volumes?), ran devenv.exe with different parameters and deleted the '14' folder in my profile. None of this worked. Finally I installed .NET Core 1.0.0.

Answer 2

I was having the same problem and this is what worked for me:

1. Uninstall ASP.NET Web Tools from Control Panel

2. Download and install "Microsoft ASP.NET and Web Tools" extension from: https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/c94a02e9-f2e9-4bad-a952-a63a967e3935

Answer 3

I had the same problem with Visual Studio 2015. I tried several things, but simply updating Microsoft ASP.NET seemed to do the trick.

Install ASP.NET 5 RC1, restart, and the issue should be resolved.

Answer 4

Try this (in order):

1. Find Microsoft ASP.NET 5 RC1 ... in control panel / programs & select modify
2. Select repair
3. Run devenv.exe /installvstemplates as administrator
4. Run VS as administrator