Unable to open VS solution for any libararies in dotnet/runtime in Visual Studio 2019 v16.7.6

Question

I downloaded the repository https://github.com/dotnet/runtime and followed this workflow guide https://github.com/dotnet/runtime/blob/master/docs/workflow/README.md

After that, I ran the build.cmd from root directory of the repository. Took me a while to build the project but when I opened any of the Visual Studio solution from one of its libraries (i.e System.Text.Json.sln) I had this error: The project file cannot be opened. Version 5.0.100-rc.2.20479.15 of the .NET Core SDK requires at least version 16.8.0 of MSBuild.

I also downloaded the SDK for .NET 5.0.100-rc.2.20479.15.

Question: How can I have the MSBuild version 16.8.0 on Visual Studio 2019 v16.7.6? Or what am I missing?

Answer 1

Projects built against .NET Core 5.0, preview2 (as the one you have there) require Visual Studio 2019 preview. You can download it from Microsoft, it works with the same license as the official releases.