Visual C++ Build Tools 2015 (Pre-release). If you want to build your C++ projects targeting Windows desktop without having Visual Studio installed on your computer, Microsoft Visual C++ Build Tools 2015 provides the required tools: C++ compilers, libraries, build scripts, Windows SDKs. This Community Technology Preview ships with the same C++ compilers and libraries packaged with Visual Studio 2015 Update 1 RC (2015.1). http://blogs.msdn.com/b/vcblog/archive/2015/10/29/visual-studio-2015-update-1-rc-available.aspx The config steps with Node.js should now be as follows:
Install VC++ Build Tools Technical Preview
💡 [Windows 7 only] requires .NET Framework 4.5.1 Install Python 2.7, and add it to your PATH, npm config set python python2.7
Launch cmd, npm config set msvs_version 2015 --global (this is instead of npm install [package name] --msvs_version=2015 every time.) SO MUCH npm install 🎉 So please give it a spin and send feedback if you're still running into issues or you think any crucial bits are missing. Much thanks to the VC team for pulling this off!! 😃 +@mluparu
I've tested it with Node.js and many of the most popular / representative packages. This includes the following packages, as suggested by @am11.
bson bufferutil kerberos node-sass sqlite3 phantomjs utf-8-validate Note that there are still many other things that can go wrong when dealing with native modules - e.g. platform and compiler differences, incompatibilities with architecture, Node version, missing prerequisites (and unfortunately most packages don't provide the best indication of how and where to get those prereqs). One tool that's very helpful in debugging missing prerequisites on Windows is Dependency Walker.