After installing visual studio 2008, I tried to open a MVC project in visual studio 2008. It threw and error “The project file <<project file url>> cannot be opened. The Project type is not supported by this installation.”
Error: The Project type is not supported by this installation
After searching the web, I found that the MVC framework versions required for the project is missing in my system. The required MVC framework version can be identified from the project file itself. Open the “.csproj” file in notepad and search for “System.Web.Mvc” reference. The reference entity will have the version details as well. See the below screen shot of the MVC reference entity in the project file.
After Identifying the required MVC version required by the project, download and install the mvc framework from the Microsoft download website.
MVC Framework Download Location
- For downloading MVC 1.0 framework go to http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5388.
- For downloading MVC 2.0 RTM go to http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=22079.
- For downloading MVC 3.0 RTM go to http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=4211.
- For downloading MVC 4.0 for VS2010 SP1 go to http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30683.
Hope this will fix the project file cannot be opened issue.