In addition: To build Xamarin cross-platform projects with single Build Tools package, I think you should install both Mobile Development with. If you're trying to build UWP projects, then you need to install corresponding windows sdk in VS IDE(develop and build) or in Build Tools Package(only for build).

So for most managed projects, we only need to make sure we've installed corresponding workloads and components, then we can build them in command-line with Build Tools package.ģ.As for Windows SDK, it contains the headers, libraries, metadata, and tools for developing and building Windows 10 apps. AFAIK, msbuild can build most of the managed projects like what we do in VS IDE.įor example, if we're developing asp.net core web projects in VS, we need to install this workload:Īnd if we need to build it in remote server without VS, we need to install these two workloads in Build Tools Package: So we can also choose to install the tool separately, we can find the Build Tools for VS2019(stand-alone build package) in Tools for VS part. So for us who use VS2017 and higher, msbuild is a default tool installed by IDE used to manage and build projects. It means we can choose to install this package to build projects in remote server where VS IDE is not installed. (If we install VS IDE, no matter which workload we choose, msbuild will be enabled by default)Ģ.Since VS2017, MSbuild becomes a separate build package.

It's the build system of VS IDE, VS IDE calls msbuild to build managed projects. To add more details to describe the relationship between VS, Build Tools and Windows SDK.ġ.The full name of Build Tools is Build Tools for VS.

Build tools for visual studio