error MSB8031

Question

_{Friday, April 10, 2020 1:28 PM}

I have Visual Studio 2019 installed on my machine with
C++ v14.24 MFC for v142 build tools (x86 & x64)

C++ v14.24 ATL for v142 build tools (x86 & x64)

I am attempting to build an legacy  application but I am getting the following error:

MSB8031    Building an MFC project for a non-Unicode character set is deprecated. You must change the project property to Unicode or download an additional library. See http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=286820 for more information.

When this error occurs it directs me to a help page which encourages me to get the MFC MBCS DLL Add-on, but this is only available for Visual Studio 2013, not Visual Studio 2019 and will not install.

Changing the Character set to Multibyte isn't working but I need to stay with multibyte character set. Please suggest.

All replies (7)

_{Friday, April 10, 2020 2:56 PM}

See /en-us/cpp/mfc/mfc-mbcs-dll-add-on?view=vs-2019

It advises --

Visual Studio 2017 and later: The Unicode and MBCS MFC DLLs are installed with the Desktop development with C++ workload when you select MFC and ATL support from the Optional Components pane in the Visual Studio Installer program. If your installation does not include these components, navigate to the File | New Projects dialog and click the Open Visual Studio Installer link. For more information, see Install Visual Studio.

_{Monday, April 13, 2020 3:03 AM}

Hi Garima,

Welcome to MSDN forum.

I think RLWA32 has pointed you in the right direction. For Visual Studio 2019, you may need to install these two components:

C++ ATL for latest v142 build tools (x86 & x64)

C++ MFC for latest v142 build tools (x86 & x64)

Any feedback will be expected.

Best Regards,

Tianyu

MSDN Community Support
Please remember to click "Mark as Answer" the responses that resolved your issue, and to click "Unmark as Answer" if not. This can be beneficial to other community members reading this thread. If you have any compliments or complaints to MSDN Support, feel free to contact [email protected].

_{Tuesday, April 14, 2020 2:22 AM}

Hi Garima,

Sorry to bother you.

Is your issue solved? Please feel free to let us know if you have any update.

Any feedback will be expected.

Best Regards,

Tianyu

MSDN Community Support
Please remember to click "Mark as Answer" the responses that resolved your issue, and to click "Unmark as Answer" if not. This can be beneficial to other community members reading this thread. If you have any compliments or complaints to MSDN Support, feel free to contact [email protected].

_{Wednesday, April 15, 2020 7:25 AM}

Hi Tianyu,

I already tried what you suggested but it also didn't work for me. Then I uninstalled VS2019 and installed VS2017 on machine and again tried it but it didn't work either.

I think installation location is different on my machine, and mismatch between Registry value and installation location.

I am unable to find altmfc at this location:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\VC\atlmfc\

Also, I am unable to find MFC.MBCS on Registry Editor 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\DevDiv\vc\Servicing\14.0\MFC.MBCS

I don't know how to resolve this.Any suggestion would be helpful.

Regards,

Garima

_{Wednesday, April 15, 2020 9:21 AM}

Hi Garima,

Thank you for your feedback.

Normally, it will work. So did you change something, when you installing the components or before, for example path(location)?

I suppose the installation is successful, maybe you have some third-party extensions or applications(include anti-virus software) which may cause this issue, if possible, you could try to stop or disable them temporarily and then check again.

BTW, since you uninstall VS 2019 and the same issue appears in VS 2017, could you please share me with detailed reproduced steps and I will try to test on my side.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Best Regards,

Tianyu

MSDN Community Support
Please remember to click "Mark as Answer" the responses that resolved your issue, and to click "Unmark as Answer" if not. This can be beneficial to other community members reading this thread. If you have any compliments or complaints to MSDN Support, feel free to contact [email protected].

_{Wednesday, April 15, 2020 11:14 AM}

This error message is due to the missing MBCS MFC package. Starting with Visual Studio 2013, MBCS portion of the MFC library has been broken out of the Visual Studio product into its own separate download. Installing this package and rebuilding should fix the problem.

The download is available here
More information about this change is available here
Update for Visual Studio 2015

Starting with Visual Studio 2015, the entire MFC C++ library (including the MBCS pieces) is an optional install component. While installing VS2015, if you select C++ and MFC, you will also get the MBCS library.

_{Tuesday, April 28, 2020 9:07 AM}

Hi Garima Gupta H2,

Is the issue has been solved? According to your description, you need to install vsiaul studio 2013 and visual studio 2019 in same machine, and then go to properties page to set "Platform Toolset" to "Visual studio 2013". 

Best Regards,

Dylan

MSDN Community Support Please remember to click "Mark as Answer" the responses that resolved your issue, and to click "Unmark as Answer" if not. This can be beneficial to other community members reading this thread. If you have any compliments or complaints to MSDN Support, feel free to contact [email protected]