After getting a new PC, and mono install, I can’t load any images into new projects… Meaning I cannot convert my png files to XNB for the game to read.
When I click on Content.mgcb, nothing happens, it doesn’t even have a icon.
It’s like the content tool is not installed. But it should be installed with monogame.
I have written and run code on my 2019 and 2022 visual studio + mono installs, so everything else works.
Assuming you’re using MG 3.8.1.303 (latest VS 2022 extension will default to this), MGCB (the content builder tool) is no longer a globally registered tool. Instead, it is meant to be handled project-by-project. To that end, the way you open it is by opening your Content.mgcb within your VS project, and it will open the correct version of the MGCB.
However, if like me you prefer to use MGCB completely separately from your VS project(s), you can easily replicate this behavior by adding a “.config” folder next to your Content.mgcb and adding a text file within it called “dotnet-tools.json” with the following content:
{
"version": 1,
"isRoot": true,
"tools": {
"dotnet-mgcb": {
"version": "3.8.1.303",
"commands": [
"mgcb"
]
},
"dotnet-mgcb-editor": {
"version": "3.8.1.303",
"commands": [
"mgcb-editor"
]
},
"dotnet-mgcb-editor-linux": {
"version": "3.8.1.303",
"commands": [
"mgcb-editor-linux"
]
},
"dotnet-mgcb-editor-windows": {
"version": "3.8.1.303",
"commands": [
"mgcb-editor-windows"
]
},
"dotnet-mgcb-editor-mac": {
"version": "3.8.1.303",
"commands": [
"mgcb-editor-mac"
]
}
}
}
The only hiccup I’ve found with this method is that it only works if your MGCB nuget is installed using the default path for some odd reason. I.e. C:\Users\[WINDOWS_USER]\.nuget\packages\dotnet-mgcb\3.8.1.303. I’ve found that if I moved my nuget packages path, it was necessary to manually copy this package (and its siblings like dotnet-mgcb-editor and dotnet-mgcb-editor-windows) back to this path.
I would, but when I double click the file, nothing happens… The file does not even have a proper icon.
In the solution explorer, I double click the content.mgcb file, but nothing happens. The appropriate tool does not launch.
Did you follow these steps to install VS and MG or install the old way, manually installing/registering dotnet tools via CLI? Do you have this nuget path C:\Users\[WINDOWS_USER]\.nuget\packages\dotnet-mgcb\3.8.1.303?
yes, I even installed BOTH 2019 and 2022 version of visual studio, thinking one of them was the problem…
I click extension manager, install monogame templates, and it reports done…
I can even WRITE code, and runs it just fine… I just can’t load content to go with it…
Also I don’t know what a “nuget” path is… I have made many projects, and never done anything with any nuget, whatever that is 
nuget is just VS’s package manager. As opposed to including assemblies manually, you’d now often refer to a “nuget package” which downloads the assemblies/tools/etc elsewhere and just includes them for this one project at build time. The intent with the path question is to see if your MG templates, and therefore new MG VS projects, are correctly downloading MGCB and its UI editor.
I saw in a different thread that you perhaps found a version of the tool. If so, the “mgcb.exe” file is the actual content builder (a CLI tool that processes a *.mgcb file, not the UI editor used to create one). What you’re looking for to open the actual editor tool will be “mgcb-editor-windows.exe” or “mgcb-editor-wpf.exe” or something similar (assuming you’re on Windows).