Intel® Software Development tools integration to Microsoft* Visual Studio 2017 issues

We received customer reports regarding Intel Parallel Studio 2017 and 2018 installation or integration issues with Visual Studio 2017 update 3. The following known issues have been identified and corresponding workarounds are provided. We are working on getting appropriate fixes. The root cause is related to Visual Studio 2017 update 3 changes displaying a new version format.

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 expected to be implemented in Intel® Parallel Studio XE 2017 Update 5. It is implemented in Intel® Parallel Studio XE 2018.

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 / 2018 Beta / 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. 

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.