I recently received a new work laptop and went through the pains of installing all the necessary software. Of course, things were missed, one of which was the SQL Server Data Tools. We’ve created a number of Report Server Project’s using the SQL Server Data Tools in Visual Studio. When attempting to open one of these projects I received an error stating:

This version of Visual Studio is unable to open the following projects. The project types may not be installed or this version of Visual Studio may not support them

Visual Studio 2015 certainly supports these reporting projects, so I knew that couldn’t be the issue. I then realized I completely forgot about those poor SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT).

Installing SQL Server Data Tools

SQL Server Data Tools is being used by Visual Studio to create these reporting projects (rptproj, dtproj). In order for Visual Studio to understand how to support them we need to install SSDT:

1. Open the SQL Server 2016 Installation Center (or whichever version you’re using)
2. In the installer window, click the Installation tab in the left-hand menu, then choose Install SQL Server Data Tools
   
3. In the feature selection window, select all the SQL Server services, then click next
4. Lastly, accept the terms and conditions, then click the Install button

Now that SQL Server Data Tools is installed with the necessary features, you should no longer receive the “Project Types May Not Be Installed” error when loading your SSDT dependent project in Visual Studio.

Sam Storino

Hi, I’m Sam.
I’m a programmer and a DIYer. When I’m not finding things to build I enjoy cooking, hiking, camping and traveling the world with my best friend. Say Hello!