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@MikeMcC399 MikeMcC399 commented Jan 19, 2026

Fixes: #61437

Situation

If Visual Studio is installed without ClangCL on Node.js >= 24, the logs from executing .\vcbuild on Windows could be misinterpreted as suggesting that Visual Studio was missing, not ClangCL.

Change

Make minor text changes in vcbuild.bat to ease troubleshooting when ClangCL has not been installed according to BUILDING.md instructions.

Example logs after change applied

Visual Studio missing

.\vcbuild
Looking for Python
Python found in C:\Users\mikem\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\\python.exe
Python 3.14.2
Looking for NASM
ClangCL is required because the Node.js version being compiled is >= 24.
Looking for Visual Studio 2026
Looking for Visual Studio 2022
Failed to find a suitable Visual Studio installation with Clang compiler/LLVM toolset.
Try to run in a "Developer Command Prompt" or consult
https://github.com/nodejs/node/blob/HEAD/BUILDING.md#windows

Visual Studio 2026 Build Tools installed incompletely

https://aka.ms/vs/stable/vs_BuildTools.exe installed 18.2.0

The failure logs are the same whether only "Desktop development with C++" is missing or ClangCL is missing, or both are missing:

.\vcbuild
Looking for Python
Python found in C:\Users\mikem\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\\python.exe
Python 3.14.2
Looking for NASM
ClangCL is required because the Node.js version being compiled is >= 24.
Looking for Visual Studio 2026
Looking for Visual Studio 2022
Failed to find a suitable Visual Studio installation with Clang compiler/LLVM toolset.
Try to run in a "Developer Command Prompt" or consult
https://github.com/nodejs/node/blob/HEAD/BUILDING.md#windows

Prerequisites installed

Logs with all prerequisites installed and no errors reported concerning missing components:

.\vcbuild
Looking for Python
Python found in C:\Users\mikem\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\\python.exe
Python 3.14.2
Looking for NASM
ClangCL is required because the Node.js version being compiled is >= 24.
Looking for Visual Studio 2026
calling: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\18\BuildTools\VC\\Auxiliary\Build\vcvarsall.bat" amd64
**********************************************************************
** Visual Studio 2026 Developer Command Prompt v18.2.0
** Copyright (c) 2025 Microsoft Corporation
**********************************************************************
[DEBUG:ext\vcvars.bat] Found potential v145 version file: 'Microsoft.VCToolsVersion.VC.14.50.18.0.txt'
[DEBUG:ext\vcvars.bat] Testing v145 version file: 'Microsoft.VCToolsVersion.VC.14.50.18.0.txt'
[vcvarsall.bat] Environment initialized for: 'x64'
Found MSVS version 18.0
Found Clang version 20.1.8
configure  --dest-cpu=x64 --clang-cl=20.1.8
[WARNING] A shebang '/bin/sh' was found but does not match any supported template (e.g. '/usr/bin/python'), so it will be treated as an arbitrary command.
[WARNING] To prevent execution of programs that are not Python runtimes, set 'shebang_can_run_anything' to 'false' in your configuration file.
Node.js configure: Found Python 3.14.2...

@nodejs-github-bot nodejs-github-bot added build Issues and PRs related to build files or the CI. needs-ci PRs that need a full CI run. windows Issues and PRs related to the Windows platform. labels Jan 19, 2026
@MikeMcC399 MikeMcC399 marked this pull request as ready for review January 19, 2026 11:18
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Building on Windows: misleading messages when ClangCL is missing

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