Pistonite VM

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Visual Studio ​

Who doesn't like 20GB of compilers

Download ​

Download Visual Studio Build Tools Installer from https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/

TIP

Scroll down to find the build tools. Don't download the IDE.

Install ​

Launch the installer, select "Windows Desktop C++ Development" (or whatever it's called)

Other components might get auto selected

Adding cl to path ​

We need Pscx for the Import-VisualStudioVars command.

Run as admin

powershell
Set-PSRepository -Name PSGallery -InstallationPolicy Trusted
Install-Module -Name Pscx -AllowPrerelease
Install-Module -Name VSSetup
Set-PSRepository -Name PSGallery -InstallationPolicy Trusted
Install-Module -Name Pscx -AllowPrerelease
Install-Module -Name VSSetup

TIP

If you get an error on -AllowPrerelease, run

Install-Module PowershellGet -AllowClobber -Force
Install-Module PowershellGet -AllowClobber -Force

Then restart powershell

After installing the extension. We will create a custom wrapper that loads visual studio vars when needed.

Run notepad $Profile and add

# Wrapper for loading Visual Studio vars on demand
# because it's slow
function Import-VisualStudioVarsIfNeeded {
    Get-Command cl.exe -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Out-Null
    if ($?) {
        return
    }
    Import-VisualStudioVars 2022 amd64
}
# Wrapper for loading Visual Studio vars on demand
# because it's slow
function Import-VisualStudioVarsIfNeeded {
    Get-Command cl.exe -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Out-Null
    if ($?) {
        return
    }
    Import-VisualStudioVars 2022 amd64
}

TIP

Change 2022 and amd64 to your VS version and OS arch

Or: Use cl from Developer Shell ​

If the method above doesn't work, you can skip it and use this method instead.

Everytime if you get an error saying compiler or linker not found, run the command again using "Developer Powershell for VS 2022" An example is when installing treesitter parsers in neovim.

It should be available as a shell in the Terminal app, or you can search in the start menu to find it