Add new comment

So, you've just updated your Visual Studio 2013 and WEC2013 installations and have generated an SDK for your OS Design. Now you install the SDK and you get this error message: "You must install Windows Embedded XAML Tools before you can proceed with this SDK installation."

Very annoying, and this is something that started being a problem with one of the later (post Update 5) updates for WEC2013. I did not have time to figure out exactly what is causing this issue (most probably some mismatching version information of the XAML toolset), but I did find a workaround:

Use Orca (or any other msi editor) to remove the Custom Action named "CA_CheckPreReqWEXTInstalled".

Orca is in the Microsoft Windows SDK which should be on your machine if you've installed Visual Studio. Take a look in your "Program Files (x86)" folder and search for "orca". You should find "Orca-x86_en_us.msi", or something similar (depending on what VS version you have installed). If you can't find anything make sure to install Visual Studio or download the Microsoft Windows SDK here.

Once you've installed Orca you can right click the SDK msi and choose "Edit with Orca". When Orca opens you'll have to select the "CustomAction" table on the left and select the row with action "CA_CheckPreReqWEXTInstalled":

Now press the delete key and a dialog should pop up asking you if you really want to permanently remove this row from the database:

Click OK, save the modified msi and exit Orca.

Now the SDK will install without problems.

DISCLAIMER: This is a workaround, not a final solution. I'm pretty sure it will all work just fine with the latest (mismatching version number) XAML tools, but I haven't checked it. Please let me know if you find any issues with this workaround by leaving a comment below, thanks!