CMake does not find Visual C++ compiler

Question

After installing Visual Studio 2015 and running CMake on a previous project, CMake errors stating that it could not find the C compiler.

The C compiler ident         


        

Answer 1

I had this issue under Windows 10 when using Visual Studio 2015 Professional, while Visual Studio 2015 Express worked! Under Windows 7, both Visual Studio versions used to work.

New projects created from the Visual Studio 2015 Professional IDE successfully compile, but CMake would fail to find the compiler reporting:

The C compiler identification is unknown
The CXX compiler identification is unknown

I upgraded CMake from 3.4.1 to 3.11.4, and now the problem is gone.