Problem installing Intel Fortran & Visual Studio

[Michael_K]

I used the Intel Visual Fortran Compiler (IVF Composer XE; Professional Edition for Windows, Version 6.0) since 2014. Unfortunately, the IVF Composer is not compatible with Widows 11. So, I installed the Intel Compiler 2025 along with Microsoft Visual Studio 2022. I created a test project consisting or a few Fortran source files, but I was not able to compile and link them. My approach was obviously too simple. I also tried to apply the oneapi-hpc-toolkit, but also without success. It seems to be rather difficult to find the right path through the numerous options of Visual Studio etc. I would appreciate your advice very much. A detailed recipe that is similarly comfortable as my old Intel Visual Fortran Compiler would be fine. Thanks in advance!

[Steve_Lionel]

There used to be a detailed article on the Intel web site for how to install Visual Studio for use with Intel compilers, but Intel inexplicably removed it. Thankfully, the Internet Archive snapshotted it last year and you can find it here.

If you want more help you'll need to provide details as to what went wrong. "without success" doesn't tell us anything.

[Michael_K]

Hello Steve_Lionel,

I followed your advice (Thank you!), but my problem seems to be more basic. I created a project, loaded some f90 files as source files and debugged them, however, with the error comment ‘rc.exe not found. The Visual Studio seems to me more complicated than the Visual Studio I used as part of the old Intel Visual Fortran Compiler up to now. So, I would be very grateful for your help. A detailed guidance would be fine.

Best regards

Michael_K

[Steve_Lionel]

rc.exe is part of the Windows API kit - this is the "resource compiler". It should be found using the default executables path.

Does the folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\bin exist on your computer? If so, look in the last folder with a name starting with "10.", for example, "C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\bin\10.0.26100.0"  Is there an rc.exe in there? If so, try this first:

In Visual Studio, select Tools > Options > Intel Compilers and Libraries > IFX Intel Fortran > Compilers > Executables > ... button on right. If the "Reset to defaults" button in the lower left is not disabled, click it. There should be a line reading "$(WindowsSdkDir)bin\x64"

If this doesn't work, uninstall and reinstall Intel Fortran.

If that Windows Kits folder does not exist, then you may have deselected it when installing the "Desktop Applications using C++" component of Visual Studio and should do a "Change/Modify of Visual Studio to select it.

[Michael_K]

Hi Steve_Lionel,

In fact, the Windows Kits folder did not exist. So, I modified Visual Studio to select it. Thank you for your advice!-

Yet, I still have problems to run Intel Fortran with VS. I tried to follow the steps explained in the Chapter “Invoke the Compiler from Visual Studio” of the IFC Get Started tutorial. But the steps proposed in the tutorial seem to me not sufficient enough.  Unfortanutely, I have got only the German version of VS, but I briefly describe what I did:

I created a new project, added one or two f90 (source) files, compiled them (no errors) and linked them yielding the comment:

fatal error LNK1120: 1 nicht aufgeloeste Externe (1  unresolved externals)

error LNK2019: Verweis auf (Reference to) nicht aufgeloestes externes Symbol "WinMain" in Funktion ""int __cdecl invoke_main(void)" (?invoke_main@@YAHXZ)".

Can you please help me?

Regards Michael_K

[Steve_Lionel]

You don't have a main program in your sources.

[Michael_K]

Hi Steve_Lionel,
one of my sources contains the main program. Obviously, it needs to be marked in the project? If yes, how?

[andrew_4619]

It looks like the project you made was a windows project . Windows projects have a winmain entry point. I suspect you have a program statement which is the entry point in which case you should have made a console project type.

[Michael_K]

Hi andrew_4619,

The console application works, the*.exe file exists, but the code cannot be executed (link 0) because the file libifcoremdd.dll is not found (system error) although it is in the directory  c:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\oneAPI\2025.3\bin\

[Steve_Lionel]

No, it doesn't need to be marked as a main program. But I gave you the wrong advice earlier. First, did you create the project as a Fortran Console application? Can you attach a ZIP of the solution folder so I can see what you did?

[Michael_K]

Hi Steve_Lionel,

The console application works, the *.exe file exists, but the code cannot be executed (link 0) because the file libifcoremdd.dll is not found although it is in the directory  c:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\oneAPI\2025.3\bin\

[MarcGrodent]

You must initialize the oneAPI environment before running your application. Otherwise the runtime libraries will not be found.

To do so, execute C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\oneAPI\setvars.bat from your terminal and then run the application.

[Michael_K]

Hi MarcGrodent,

Thank you! Your advice may be useful sometimes when it is not needed to invoke the VS.

[Steve_Lionel]

Debug-build programs cannot be run outside of the development environment. I know it's a debug build because of the name of the DLL it's looking for. If you do a Release build, you can run it directly.

[Michael_K]

I did, but how to run?

[Steve_Lionel]

In Visual Studio, Debug > Start without debugging. In the command line build environment, type the name of the EXE. If you built a release configuration executable, you can just double-click on it, assuming that the compiler install properly updated PATH (not a given.)

[Michael_K]

 Hi Steve_Lionel, 

Thank you very much for your help! 

Regards  Michael_K