LNK1104: cannot open file 'kernel32.lib'

Question

I Had VS2010 installed but found that intellisense wasn't working. I looked on the web and found that I wasn't the only one who had that issue. So, I installed VS2008 and everything was fine. Then I decided to clean up my computer and removed VS2010 and immediately started getting this error on my programs (new and old). Even a simple test program that has one cout command. I tried repairing VS2008 and that didn't work so I tried to uninstall and then reinstall and still I am getting the same problem.

I have looked online for this issue and though I have found a lot of other people are experiencing this issue it is not the same. They are having problems with other external references, not the ones that should automatically be included like kernel32 and lib32 etc.

I also tried the solution that worked for some people with their other references and I included the path (with and without quotes) to my kernel32 directory but still I get the same problem, or in some instances I will get

LNK1104: cannot open file 'C:\WINDOWS\system32.obj'

with and without quotes in the linker config.

Can anyone please help?

Answer 1

It sounds like the path for libs may be messed up.

Answer 2

I included the path (with and without quotes) to my kernel32 directory

It looks like you're pointing to C:\Windows\System32 which is where the DLL might be, but that's not where the .lib file will be.

In VS 2010 it's probably somewhere like:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\Lib

I don't have ready access to VS2008 to say where kernel32.lib gets installed by default for that product.