c++ - How to make Visual Studio use the native amd64 toolchain

Question

How can I get Visual Studio 2012 to use the native amd64 toolchain, rather than the default x86_amd64 cross-compiler?

I am building a large library that causes the linker to run out of memory when doing whole program optimization and link-time code generation.

I found two older posts (here and here) asking this same question, but no answers yet. Microsoft provides documentation on how to specify the toolchain on the command line, but not in the IDE.

Answer 1

There is another method of forcing use of the 64-bit linker on a per-project basis for Visual Studio 2013. Edit your .vcxproj file and insert the following after the <Import...Microsoft.Cpp.Defaults line:

  <Import Project="$(VCTargetsPath)Microsoft.Cpp.Default.props" />
  <PropertyGroup>
    <PreferredToolArchitecture>x64</PreferredToolArchitecture>
  </PropertyGroup>