Noob question - VS2017 cannot read tinderbox project

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this question - Created a test screensaver app in Tinderbox, VS2017 unable to open solution with the following errors -

error : Unable to read the project file “myprojectnamehere.vcxproj”.
Found an unexpected character ‘|’ at position 6 in condition “Debug|Win32”.

any help greatly appreciated