Access EnvDTE Visual C++ Settings from PowerShell

Question

I would like to loop through a bunch of Visual C++ projects and change the optimization settings for the Release build.  Although I am using Visual Studio 2008, I wanted to use PowerShell since I will probably use this script for many years
and I know that VS2012 removed the built-in macros.
I wrote a script to look at some values:
Add-Type -AssemblyName 'Microsoft.VisualStudio.VCProjectEngine, Version=9.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a'
$dte = New-Object -ComObject 'VisualStudio.DTE.9.0'
write-Output "$( $dte.name ) $( $dte.edition ) $( $dte.version )"
$dte.Solution.Open( "$PSScriptRoot\TestSolution\TestSolution.sln" )
# Solution contains 1 C++ project.
$project = $dte.Solution.Projects.Item( 1 )
Write-Output "Project name = $( $project.FileName ) kind = $( $project.Kind )"
$vcProject = $project.Object
$vcConfiguration = $vcProject.Configurations.Item(1)
foreach ( $vcConfiguration in $vcProject.Configurations )
Write-Output " VCConfiguration Name = $( $vcConfiguration.Name )"
foreach ( $vcTool in $vcConfiguration.Tools )
Write-Output " VCTool ToolName = $( $vcTool.ToolName )"
switch( $vcTool.ToolName )
'VCCLCompilerTool'
Write-Output " AdditionalIncludeDirectories = $( $vcTool.AdditionalIncludeDirectories )"
Write-Output " DebugInformationFormat = $( $vcTool.DebugInformationFormat )"
Write-Output " OmitFramePointers = $( $vcTool.OmitFramePointers )"
'VCLinkerTool'
Write-Output " AdditionalDependencies = $( $vcTool.AdditionalDependencies )"
$dte.Quit()
[System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::ReleaseComObject( $dte ) | Out-Null
Remove-Variable dte
When I try to run it, I get the following errors trying to access the Configurations property:
PS D:\VS> .\test1.ps1
Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 9.0
Project name = D:\VS\TestSolution\TestProj\TestProj.vcproj kind = {8BC9CEB8-8B4A-11D0-8D11-00A0C91BC942}
Error HRESULT E_FAIL has been returned from a call to a COM component.
At D:\VS\test1.ps1:13 char:1
+ $vcConfiguration = $vcProject.Configurations.Item(1)
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : OperationStopped: (:) [], COMException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException
Error HRESULT E_FAIL has been returned from a call to a COM component.
At D:\VS\test1.ps1:15 char:31
+ foreach ( $vcConfiguration in $vcProject.Configurations )
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : OperationStopped: (:) [], COMException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException
Any suggestions to work around the E_FAIL errors?

Answer 1

Hi BAH Humbug,
Actually I just want to help you find a more appropriate
forum, so this issue could be resolved as soon as possible.
Since the VS General forum is to discuss:
Visual Studio WPF/SL Designer, Visual Studio Guidance Automation Toolkit, Developer Documentation and Help System, and Visual Studio Editor.
>>But it could be my misuse of the Visual Studio COM model, or it can be a problem with the COM implementation.  If I demonstrated the same failure in C# or vbScript, would that be enough to say it is a Visual Studio problem?
Like this link here:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms691910(v=vs.85).aspx
If it is related to the language development, the specific language development forum would be better like VC++/VB/C# or others. The VS General forum is to discuss the VS IDE, not for development or script issue. So I doubt that it is not the
real VS IDE issue.
Of course, one good suggestions is that you could post this issue to the to the moderator forum
("Where is the forum for..?"). The owner of the forum will direct you to a right/better forum if you feel that the Powershell is not the correct forum for you.
Sincerely,
Jack
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