The error “This project is incompatible with the current version of visual studio” displayed

Question

I installed Vs 2010 Express in my PC, and created a poject named myproject with .net 4.0, it works well in Vs 2010 Express.

Now I installed Vs 2012 Express in my

Answer 1

In my case the problem was the Component Model Cache (Visual Studio for C++).

in VS2013 it is located in

%localappdata%\Microsoft\VisualStudio\12.0\ComponentModelCache

in VS2015 in

%localappdata%\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0\ComponentModelCache

Rename this folder and restart visual studio.

Answer 2

Make sure that all your extensions are same as in previous version. For me, when I upgraded from old PC to New PC, I didn't downloaded correct extensions hence resulting in above issue.

Answer 3

If you are getting the same error for a project which is actually an extension (.vsix), please install Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 SDK

Answer 4

Installing KB2781514 - Update for Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 solved the problem for me.

Answer 5

I know this is a little old, but just in case the above solutions don't work: don't be an idiot like me and try to open an MVC project using "VS for Desktop" instead of "VS for Web" (or vice-versa), since it will give you the incompatible message.

I use TFS at my job and I tried to open a MVC project via the TFS Solution Explorer. I wasn't paying attention to which Visual Studio version I had open and since both IDE's look alike, I was confused at what was going on - a common mistake, I'm sure =P

Answer 6

Check the directory that contains the solution file for an UpgradeLog.htm file. It will probably show what's wrong. In my case I tried to open an ASP.NET project, but the Web Developer Tools were not installed.

The Web Developer Tools can be installed afterwards by going to the Control Panel and to modify your existing Visual Studio installation. After adding Web Developer Tools the project opened without issues.