Fix npm msvs_version error in Windows system-setup guide

[ProchaLu]

Description

After running, choco install python visualstudio2017-workload-vctools -y on Windows, some users are reporting an error when trying to set the msvs_version option in npm using the command npm config set msvs_version 2017. The error message says that msvs_version is not a valid npm option. This issue is causing problems for users who are trying to set up their Windows environment for development.

Possible solutions:

• Maybe a possible solution can be to use the --global flag with the npm config set command to set the msvs_version option globally. This can be done using the following command: npm config set msvs_version 2017 --global
• Maybe users can set the msvs_version option manually in their npmrc file located at C:\Users\<username>\.npmrc by adding the following line: msvs_version=2017

[more-no]

I had the same problem at that point:

PS C:\Windows\system32> npm config set msvs_version 2017
npm ERR! `msvs_version` is not a valid npm option

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in: C:\Users\khayo\AppData\Local\npm-cache\_logs\2023-08-22T12_12_13_960Z-debug-0.log

Same problem adding --global:

npm config set msvs_version 2017 --global
npm ERR! `msvs_version` is not a valid npm option

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in: C:\Users\khayo\AppData\Local\npm-cache\_logs\2023-08-23T09_38_49_142Z-debug-0.log
PS C:\Windows\system32>

I am doing this on a new laptop but I had the same problem with the old one.
From this post https://stackoverflow.com/questions/75647270/node-gyp-msvs-version-is-not-a-valid-npm-option I reached this page nodejs/node-gyp@c7927e2.
Installing Visual Studio Build Tools and Visual Studio Community also didn't help.

Another post https://davy.ai/node-gyp-msvs_version-is-not-a-valid-npm-option/ suggested another way node-gyp configure --msvs_version=2017 .

This is the output:

$ node-gyp configure --msvs_version=2017
gyp info it worked if it ends with ok    
gyp info using node-gyp@9.4.0
gyp info using node@18.17.1 | win32 | x64
gyp info find Python using Python version 3.11.4 found at "C:\Python311\python.exe"
gyp ERR! find VS
gyp ERR! find VS msvs_version was set from command line or npm config
gyp ERR! find VS - looking for Visual Studio version 2017
gyp ERR! find VS VCINSTALLDIR not set, not running in VS Command Prompt        
gyp ERR! find VS checking VS2022 (17.7.34018.315) found at:
gyp ERR! find VS "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community"     
gyp ERR! find VS - found "Visual Studio C++ core features"
gyp ERR! find VS - found VC++ toolset: v143
gyp ERR! find VS - found Windows SDK: 10.0.22621.0
gyp ERR! find VS - msvs_version does not match this version
gyp ERR! find VS could not find a version of Visual Studio 2017 or newer to use
gyp ERR! find VS looking for Visual Studio 2015
gyp ERR! find VS - not found
gyp ERR! find VS not looking for VS2013 as it is only supported up to Node.js 8
gyp ERR! find VS
gyp ERR! find VS valid versions for msvs_version:
gyp ERR! find VS - "2022"
gyp ERR! find VS - "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community"   
gyp ERR! find VS
gyp ERR! find VS **************************************************************
gyp ERR! find VS You need to install the latest version of Visual Studio
gyp ERR! find VS including the "Desktop development with C++" workload.
gyp ERR! find VS For more information consult the documentation at:
gyp ERR! find VS https://github.com/nodejs/node-gyp#on-windows
gyp ERR! find VS **************************************************************
gyp ERR! find VS
gyp ERR! configure error
gyp ERR! stack Error: Could not find any Visual Studio installation to use
gyp ERR! stack     at VisualStudioFinder.fail (C:\Users\khayo\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\node-gyp\lib\find-visualstudio.js:122:47)
gyp ERR! stack     at C:\Users\khayo\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\node-gyp\lib\find-visualstudio.js:75:16 
gyp ERR! stack     at VisualStudioFinder.findVisualStudio2013 (C:\Users\khayo\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\node-gyp\lib\find-visualstudio.js:380:14)
gyp ERR! stack     at C:\Users\khayo\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\node-gyp\lib\find-visualstudio.js:71:14 
gyp ERR! stack     at C:\Users\khayo\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\node-gyp\lib\find-visualstudio.js:401:16gyp ERR! stack     at C:\Users\khayo\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\node-gyp\lib\util.js:54:7
gyp ERR! stack     at C:\Users\khayo\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\node-gyp\lib\util.js:33:16
gyp ERR! stack     at ChildProcess.exithandler (node:child_process:427:5)
gyp ERR! stack     at ChildProcess.emit (node:events:514:28)
gyp ERR! stack     at maybeClose (node:internal/child_process:1091:16)
gyp ERR! System Windows_NT 10.0.19045
gyp ERR! command "C:\\Program Files\\nodejs\\node.exe" "C:\\Users\\khayo\\AppData\\Roaming\\npm\\node_modules\\node-gyp\\bin\\node-gyp.js" "configure" "--msvs_version=2017"
gyp ERR! cwd C:\Users\khayo
gyp ERR! node -v v18.17.1
gyp ERR! node-gyp -v v9.4.0
gyp ERR! not ok

I have Visual Studio 2022 installed, but still:

PS C:\Windows\system32> npm config set msvs_version 2017
npm ERR! `msvs_version` is not a valid npm option

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in: C:\Users\khayo\AppData\Local\npm-cache\_logs\2023-08-23T10_02_54_756Z-debug-0.log
PS C:\Windows\system32>

[karlhorky]

From this post stackoverflow.com/questions/75647270/node-gyp-msvs-version-is-not-a-valid-npm-option I reached this page nodejs/node-gyp@c7927e2.

This seems like a great tip, that in nodejs/node-gyp#2822 (the PR associated with the commit you found), the node-gyp team has actually removed this instruction from their readme:

But this alone is not enough information for us to remove it from our instructions, because the PR also notes:

@gengjiawen in comment 1161506873: Can you delete this line ? I think for most user, this is not necessary.

So if it is necessary for some users, then we want to make sure that those users do not have problems.

I've asked @gengjiawen (a Node.js team member) for more details about that here:

• doc: Update README.md nodejs/node-gyp#2822 (comment)

If we can find out which users will be affected by this, then we can edit our System Setup instructions for Windows to avoid this problem.

[karlhorky]

Another post davy.ai/node-gyp-msvs_version-is-not-a-valid-npm-option suggested another way node-gyp configure --msvs_version=2017 .

Indeed the node-gyp configure --msvs_version=... format of the configuration option also seems to be valid, as is documented in the node-gyp readme, so this may also be a path forward (if we decide we want to keep the configuration in the System Setup guide).

[karlhorky]

@ProchaLu an additional idea here would be to add a step to the Windows System Setup guide which would cause the Visual Studio C++ build tools to be used (some project that would trigger compiling native code), and if it's not working, then to add additional possible debugging steps.

[gengjiawen]

@ProchaLu Install visual studio 2022 is enough, everything just works.
npm config set msvs_version is unnecessary.

[karlhorky]

Thanks for the tip @gengjiawen !

@ProchaLu maybe you can try the following changes and test on a fresh machine:

• switch visualstudio2017-workload-vctools to visualstudio2022-workload-vctools (you may also need to add an earlier step to first install visualstudio2022buildtools, see quote below)

  Visual Studio 2022 Build Tools must be installed first, for example using the Chocolatey package visualstudio2022buildtools.

  Source

• remove the npm config set msvs_version ... command

Maybe @Eprince-hub will have to help with the fresh Windows machine.

[Davidihl]

@ProchaLu installing visualstudio2022-workload-vctools will install visualstudio2022buildtools in the process, so it may not be necessary to install it as a prerequisite