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Learn more about Teams @StevenM.Vascellaro: it was devblogs.microsoft.com/cppblog/… "MFC and ATL (added with VS 2015 Update 3)" – Roman R. Mar 11, 2019 at 14:18 I did the above but it didn't end up on the path so I added it. For me, it was: D:\Visual Studio 2017\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.11.25503\atlmfc\include – Colby Africa Oct 26, 2017 at 23:39 Between the highlighted with yellow there also is "MFC and ATL support (x86 and x64)" item, which might need to be checked as well. – Roman R. Dec 14, 2017 at 8:44 Installing ATL didn't fix the issue in Visual Studio Community 2017. This may only work in VS Professional. – Stevoisiak Mar 11, 2019 at 14:26 @StevoisiaksupportsMonica this works for Visual Studio 2017 Express, which is in the OP's question. But this is incomplete. First of all you install Visual Studio 2017 BuildTools and select Visual C++ ATL for x64. Then you go into the directory and copy C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\BuildTools\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.16.27023\atlmfc to VSDExpress folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\WDExpress\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.16.27023 . Then the tools can find the source files. See @pogosama's answer. – 1283822 Dec 12, 2019 at 22:28 I have just used this solution. By far the best answer. For some reason I had to download the ISO, though, but hosted that with Daemon Tools and no problems installing it. Not only does it give you the header ( atlbase.h ) and libs (e.g. atls.lib ), the next missing lib I needed was ws2_32.lib and it was also included with a whole host of others. Don't bother with the old SDKs, and you certainly don't need to upgrade your Express Visual Studio edition as so many people suggest at first. – Cookie Feb 29, 2012 at 17:41 I have downloaded this driver kit but couldn't figure out how to give path of atlbase.h in project. Asked a question here also. – Bilal Haider Oct 2, 2015 at 11:54 PSDK-amd64.exe if you are running 64-bit Windows on an x86-64 CPU. PSDK-ia64.exe if you are running Windows on Itanium. PSDK-x86.exe if you are running 32-bit Windows. – wkl Oct 9, 2010 at 23:28

Solution for Visual Studio 2017 Express edition

I had the same error when building a COM C++ project in Visual Studio 2017 Express edition. As mentioned by several users here, ATL support is not included with the Express edition of Visual Studio. So to build a C++ COM/ATL project you need at least the Community edition .

If you really need to use the Express edition, you can download and install the Build Tools for Visual Studio 2017 . Make sure to enable the ' Visual C++ ATL for x86 and x64 ' component during the setup.

After that add additional VC++ directories in the project properties:

Include directories: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\BuildTools\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.14.26428\atlmfc\include

Library directories: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\BuildTools\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.14.26428\atlmfc\lib\x86

The VC++ compiler should now be able to find the ATL source and library files.

Situation

With Visual Studio 2017 Community Edition, we installed "Visual C++ ATL support" and MFC and ATL support. The error still occurred in our x64 project.

Solution

We fixed some paths with the following two commands:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\VC>mklink /d atlmfc "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.11.25503\atlmfc"
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.11.25503\atlmfc\lib>mklink /d amd64 "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.11.25503\atlmfc\lib\x64
Details
We eventually found the header atlbase.h in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.11.25503\atlmfc\include. This path simply was not added to the VC Include directory by vsvars32.bat, so the header was not found during build.
vsvars32.bat includes the following line:
@if exist "%VCINSTALLDIR%ATLMFC\INCLUDE" set INCLUDE=%VCINSTALLDIR%ATLMFC\INCLUDE;%INCLUDE%`.
This resolved to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\VC\atlmfc\include in our machine.
We created a directory junction, so the build tool finds atlbase.h in the expected directory (this is the first command from the Solution section above):
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\VC>mklink /d atlmfc "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.11.25503\atlmfc"
Afterwards, the linker did not find atls.lib (see Cannot Open File atls.lib). This was due to the expected file structure was that lib should directly contain the x86 version of the libs and lib\amd64 should contain the x64 variants. Instead, lib\x86 contained the x86 versions and lib\x64 contained the 64 bit versions. Since we build a 64 bit project, creating another directory junk from amd64 to x64 solved the problem:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.11.25503\atlmfc\lib>mklink /d amd64 "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.11.25503\atlmfc\lib\x64
                This method didn't survive the latest Visual Studio update, as the ATL SDK updated to 14.14.26428 and so the paths changed. After updating the symlink paths, it worked again.
– Froggy
                May 8, 2018 at 9:51
                It was included in older versions of the Windows Platform SDK, but it is (apparently intentionally) omitted from current ones.
– jamesdlin
                Oct 10, 2010 at 0:13
                atlbase.h file only come up with community edition , trying to download from other SDK is waste of time , because all other SDK links are not found. Is it correct?
– Jon marsh
                Sep 18, 2019 at 11:10
I had same problem with sample project. I specified the sample project's properties and the sample project compiled successfully.
Visual Studio 8

For header

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\atlmfc\include
For .lib file

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\atlmfc\lib
I have not yet seen anyone mention Visual Studio 2015 (MSBuild 14.0). In this case I've had to download Visual C++ BuildTools (found here: https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/older-downloads/). After having installed this, running the installer again allowed me to modify the installation and include the ATL libs.
Hope this helps anyone that is still using MSBuild 14.0
        
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