node gyp error TRACKER : error TRK0005: Failed to locate: “CL.exe”. The system cannot find the file specified

Question

I want to install bcrypt on a windows 10 machine with visual studio community 2015, Python v2.7.3 installed but i get the following error.

node version v4.2.1 node-

Answer 1

I had the same problem with another module.

I solved it by:

• Install visual studio community 2013
• Run npm config set msvs_version 2013 --global
• Run npm install bcrypt

Answer 2

I had a problem installing karma (npm module). I installed Visual c++ from visual studio 2015 install and it worked.

Answer 3

Putting this here in case someone has the same issue:

I already had the C++ libraries installed.

Updating Node worked for me.

I assume the older version of node just didn't support my VS2017.

Answer 4

Just gonna drop this here in case someone needs this to work with VS 2017 and ethereum web3.js. I faced this problem when installing web3.js

1. Update Node.js to 8.11.1
2. Create a Visual C++ Project in VS 2017, and make sure it built succesfully

3. Set the config msvs_version

   npm config set msvs_version 2017 --global

4. then npm install web3 -g --save

Answer 5

I had a similar problem while building a typical hello_world.c console application. The reason was that I decided to install VS2015 to "C:\program files (x86)\msvc14", but the installer installed cl.exe to the default "c:\program files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0" path. Which is obviously a serious bug in the setup program.

I merged all the content of "Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0" into the "msvc14" directory, and now all works fine.

Answer 6

Easily, I fixed this issue by simply creating C++ project in VS2015.

Basically, when u choose to create a c++ project, VS2015 will ask you to install a certain component, you just let it install. The issue will get fixed. (BTW, I am using VS2015 on Win10)