Cannot find Microsoft.Office.Interop Visual Studio

I need to develop an application which will has the capability to send emails using C# with visual studio. The app will be able to use templates for mail, and a lot of things, but I have a problem.

I cannot find any Office.Interop references when I try to add them, which is mean I cannot work with Outlook. Office is installed on my computer, but i also try to install the PIA from this link http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=3508 but it didn't change anything (when I launch the MSI it stops without a word, I don't know if it's part of the problem).

I`m using Visual Studio 2013 Express, in case that might limit the possible answers.

Solution 1:

Look for them under COM when trying to add the references. You should find the reference below, and possibly Microsoft Outlook 15.0 Object Library, if you need that. There are similar libraries for Word, Excel, etc.:

Update: The Object Library should contain the Interop stuff. Try to add this to a source file and see if it finds what you need:

using Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook;

Solution 2:

I forgot to select Microsoft Office Developer Tools for installation initially. In my case Visual Studio Professional 2013 and also 2015.

Solution 3:

If you're using Visual Studio 2015 and you're encountering this problem, you can install MS Office Developer Tools for VS2015 here.

Solution 4:

With Visual Studio 2015 I have activated it with the following steps.

1. Programs and Features --> Select Visual Studio > Change
2. Choose Modify
3. Windows and Webdevelopment --> Tick "Microsoft Office Developer Tools"
4. Start Update

It should work now.