How do I cancel a build that is in progress in Visual Studio?

Question

Almost unconsciously I hit the keyboard build macro that builds my entire solution. This can happen just as I notice a code change. The build dominates my computer, and I basically have to wait till it finishes. 10 seconds!

How can I cancel a build?

score 538 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 25 '12 at 03:30

538

You can hit Ctrl+Break on the keyboard to cancel/stop a build that is currently in progress.

edited Jan 25 '12 at 03:30

Cody Gray - on strike

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answered Jan 25 '12 at 03:18

Chris Subagio

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When I tried it it seemed to depend on which pane within VS had focus (e.g. Solution Explorer vs Output pane) - but this might not be true – marnir Oct 17 '13 at 18:29
90

The break key can be labelled "pause" too – dyesdyes Nov 19 '13 at 10:59
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That's Ctrl + Fn + F6 on your Dell Inspiron, if you have one. – Feb 26 '14 at 04:19
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If your keyboard doesn't have a Pause/Break key, you can go to Tools -> Options -> Keyboard then set an extra mapping for the Build.Cancel command. – Sean Colombo Jul 31 '15 at 18:32
"Project cannot cancel build at this time... Try again later." https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/t/vs-build-is-stuck-cannot-cancel-the-build/329296 Can only kill task in Taskmanager... :( – The incredible Jan Aug 02 '22 at 12:39

score 194 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 12 '21 at 18:30

194

Go to Visual Studio Build Menu -> cancel build , easy :)

edited Mar 12 '21 at 18:30

Chuck D

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answered Jul 08 '15 at 19:41

darmis

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You need to turn on Tools -> Settings -> Expert Settings for that to work. – CJ Dennis Feb 09 '17 at 00:35
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To go fast, use `Alt + b + a` – Elliott Beach Feb 24 '19 at 15:29
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@profimedica I think most people would like to use the keyboard perhaps Alt + b + a, also works. – darmis Mar 24 '19 at 15:16
@darmis, The answer marked (Ctrl+Break) did not worked for me. I was publishing to Azure, dotnet build finished but the build window continued to display output from the deploying process. I will try Alt + b + a and let you know – profimedica Mar 25 '19 at 16:31
What do you do if "Cancel" doesn't exist and "Alt + b + a" doesn't do anything? And what if you don't have an option for setting "Expert settings"? – xizwyck Apr 20 '22 at 14:31

score 20 · Answer 3 · edited Aug 05 '17 at 09:22

20

This is crude, but it works well. The Visual Studio on one of my projects (I turn MVC view building on to catch markup errors), well, the project becomes unresponsive while building. I can't cancel the build using the keyboard shortcuts.

So I made this batch file that sits on my quick launch task bar.

@echo off
echo KILL BILLd
for /L %%i in (1,1,10) do (
   Taskkill /IM aspnet_compiler.exe /F
   timeout 1
)

I also made the batch file launch minimized. The build stops and Visual Studio just throws in the error window that there was a problem building.

edited Aug 05 '17 at 09:22

Peter Mortensen

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answered Feb 21 '13 at 20:30

Valamas

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throw in MSBuild.exe for non asp_net apps. Xaml locks in live code analysis a lot – Nick Turner Feb 05 '19 at 14:59

score 11 · Answer 4 · answered May 22 '19 at 15:40

11

If all else fails go to task manager and kill the msbuild task under Visual Studio 2017

answered May 22 '19 at 15:40

Adam Seabridge

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score 8 · Answer 5 · edited Aug 05 '17 at 09:24

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Ctrl + Break works, but only if the Build window is active. Also, interrupting the build will sometimes leave a corrupted .obj file that will have to be manually deleted in order for the build to proceed.

edited Aug 05 '17 at 09:24

Peter Mortensen

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answered Apr 19 '15 at 08:41

Mark Holten

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Note: In case of VS2017 the shortcut works no matter which window is active. – Alex Nov 09 '18 at 08:42

score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Jul 13 '14 at 19:21

3

Ctrl + End works for me on Visual C++ 2010 Express.

answered Jul 13 '14 at 19:21

kgsmith

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score 3 · Answer 7 · answered Dec 15 '16 at 02:30

3

Visual Studio 2015 Professional Update 3

If you are using Mac you can do following

Click Build --> Cancel from the Visual Studio Menu

or

Select Azure App Service Activity window --> Cancel it will cancel the publish activity.

answered Dec 15 '16 at 02:30

Iyyappan Amirthalingam

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score 2 · Answer 8 · edited Aug 05 '17 at 09:25

2

I'm using Visual Studio 2015. To stop build you can follow:

Ctrl + Pause
Ctrl + Break

edited Aug 05 '17 at 09:25

Peter Mortensen

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answered Nov 18 '16 at 04:28

Thanh

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score 2 · Answer 9 · answered Jul 06 '18 at 16:45

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The "pause" command was a function button underneath my right shift key, so the below combination of keys did the trick for me.

Ctrl + Fn + Shift

answered Jul 06 '18 at 16:45

Isaac Adams

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score 2 · Answer 10 · answered Jan 18 '19 at 04:31

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I was hit by an unresponsive build and absolutely nothing would allow me to either kill or cancel the build. Even trying to end the task would trigger a user input window, saying that it could not be ended while the build is still going on (quite ironic because that was precisely the intention, to leave that broken state).

The build was taken care of by MSBuild, so the one way I found is to end its task. When forcing MSBuild.exe to end, VS will wake up and finally see the build as cancelled, allowing you to work again.

Hope this helps someone in the same situation.

answered Jan 18 '19 at 04:31

Frederik.L

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Did this 3 seconds before I read this. I would just add MSBuild to the kill bill script above – Nick Turner Feb 05 '19 at 15:01
Ctrl-Alt-Del to bring up Tasks, then kill VS process (only thing that seems to work) – MC9000 Jun 28 '20 at 03:44

score 1 · Answer 11 · edited Aug 05 '17 at 09:24

1

The build context menu has a Cancel build in Visual Studio 2013.

edited Aug 05 '17 at 09:24

Peter Mortensen

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answered Dec 20 '15 at 21:46

jacobsgriffith

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score 1 · Answer 12 · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

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Go to the Window menu and choose "Web Publish Activity" There will be a cancel button. Cancel button on "Web Publish Activity" tab

edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

Community

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answered Feb 26 '18 at 22:29

Ray Koren

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score 1 · Answer 13 · answered Oct 29 '20 at 10:10

1

For users of Lenovo Thinkpad T470s like me, you can simulate the break key by hitting Ctrl+Fn+P, which cancels the build.

answered Oct 29 '20 at 10:10

Skeird

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score 1 · Answer 14 · answered Jul 25 '21 at 17:05

If you do not have a break key on your keyboard, you can change the keyboard shortcut to cancel the build.

Just search hotkeys in the search menu. This should take you to Environment > Keyboard. From there, search for Build.Cancel and you can change it to whatever keyboard shortcut ( eg. Ctrl+Alt+End ). This is a good keyboard shortcut because it won't conflict with other uses of Ctrl+End or Ctrl+Shift+End .

score 0 · Answer 15 · edited Sep 27 '22 at 20:44

0

Ctrl + Shift + Pause/Break

I am using Visual Studio Community 2022

edited Sep 27 '22 at 20:44

Tyler2P

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answered Sep 19 '22 at 09:53

MCS

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How do I cancel a build that is in progress in Visual Studio?

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