After watching some of the demo videos of the latest Visual Studio SDK, I was excited to get started and try out my own add-in.  I installed the SDK, fired up Visual Studio, created an integration package, compiled, and got a nasty error:

CTC : fatal error CTC2013: Can’t start preprocessor (2)

What does this mean?  Apparently, part of the integration package includes something that needs to be compiled by a C++ compiler.  When originally looking through the options of my Visual Studio install, I noticed that the C++ compiler likes to take up 1-2 gigs of space, and not being a C++ developer, I choose to forgo that option.  Apparently C++ has come back to bite me years after I thought I was done with it forever.

All you have to do to get around the error is go back and install the C++ compiler from your Visual Studio 2005 disc, then compile the project again.  It should work.

If you get a “Requires elevation” error during the compilation, remember that you’re running Vista and you need to fire up Visual Studio in administrator mode.