How to resolve Path to SOPC Builder directory is not found

The LINKER.EXE is from Microsoft Visual Studio. I read from the AOCL docs that it's used for emulation. If you only intend on running your kernels in the actual FPGA instead of emulating it on your PC, you don't need it.

I have a DE1-SoC too and I can compile the .cl files in the example projects using `aoc` even if I don't have visual studio.

You can set environment variables permanently in Windows using these steps (see DE1-SOC_OpenCL_v02.pdf from the DE1-SOC resources page):

1. Open start menu, right click computer, select properties

2. Select Advanced system settings -> Advanced tab -> Environment variables -> New user variable

3. Type the name of the variable and its value, press ok/apply

Now when you open a new command prompt window, your environment vars will be set and you won't need to run init_opencl.bat.