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AL.exe Not Found - SOLUTION

In a previous post of mine about AL.exe not found while compiling a project with VS 2008, I was not able to compile any Class library with VS 2008. I searched so many links online and couldn't find a single solution.

On one of the blog posts I was searching I found the email of Karin Meier (Windows SDK | Samples and Community PM), Program Manager in the Windows SDK. She was so helpful to me by giving a solution to me.

What need to be set is a global environment variable (ALTOOLPATH) that has the value for the AL.exe path on your machine. Why global? All sessions will be sharing it, simply set!

First of all you need to find the path of AL.exe on your machine, AL.exe should be there when you install Windows SDK.

Go to: Start -> Programs -> Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 -> Visual Studio Tools -> Visual Studio 2008 Command Prompt

Type the following command: Where al.exe

The above command shall give you the path to the AL.exe on your machine.

Now go to Control Panel -> System -> Advanced System Settings -> Environment Variables

Add a new variable with the following info:

Key Name: ALTOOLPATH

Key Value: {Path to AL.exe you got above EX: "C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\"}

 

Now, open Visual Studio 2008 and compile! It should work perfectly!

Thank you Karin and all those who tried to solve this problem!

 

Hope this post helps you!

Regards

Published Tuesday, December 25, 2007 8:24 PM by BilalHaidar [MVP]
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Comments

# re: AL.exe Not Found - SOLUTION

Thank you very much!!!

Tuesday, April 01, 2008 6:39 AM by Denis

# re: AL.exe Not Found - SOLUTION

any idea how to fix this on a dedicated build machine that does not have VS 2008 installed?

I've tried the environment variable workaround to no avail.  

Thanks

Kevin

Tuesday, May 06, 2008 7:32 AM by Kevin

# re: AL.exe Not Found - SOLUTION

This solution DOES work.

Thanks

Wednesday, September 10, 2008 3:11 PM by Alex

# re: AL.exe Not Found - SOLUTION

This post is very helpfull.

Thanks

Wednesday, September 24, 2008 9:10 AM by davinder

# re: AL.exe Not Found - SOLUTION

Damn... so easy and yes it works fine !!

Friday, October 17, 2008 12:55 AM by Depechie

# re: AL.exe Not Found - SOLUTION

thank you, thank you

Wednesday, October 22, 2008 7:59 PM by kamal

# re: AL.exe Not Found - SOLUTION

This happened to me after installing SQL 2008 en VS2008 SP1.

After trying other solutions to no avail (eg editing the registry) this solution worked like a charm!

Wednesday, January 14, 2009 12:28 AM by Jasper

# re: AL.exe Not Found - SOLUTION

Thanks Bilal, same problem was with me and this solved my problem. :)

Thursday, January 29, 2009 3:51 AM by chirantan upadhyay

# re: AL.exe Not Found - SOLUTION

Like a charm, thanks buddy!

Tuesday, February 10, 2009 1:27 PM by Scott

# re: AL.exe Not Found - SOLUTION

Finally!!! A solution (THE ONLY ONE) that works... I also tried editing registry, almost reinstalled sdk for VS 2008... This page should be the first one displayed when typing "al.exe" in search engine...

Tuesday, March 10, 2009 12:44 AM by Ivan

# re: AL.exe Not Found - SOLUTION

thanks man it is really good

Wednesday, June 03, 2009 4:20 AM by huss

# re: AL.exe Not Found - SOLUTION

Running Where al.exe game me a path of "program files\microsoft visual studio 9.0\vc" which visual studio 2008 didn't like.  I followed your instructions, and pointed to C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\ instead.  WORKED GREAT!  

Wednesday, June 10, 2009 5:29 PM by steve

# re: AL.exe Not Found - SOLUTION

Works for me...thanks man

Friday, June 19, 2009 6:41 AM by MJ

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