could not install prerender using npm - “Failed to locate: CL.exe”

Question

I\'ve been trying to install PreRender.Io on my local machine to test. I\'ve installed Python 2.7.10. When I type:

npm install prerender<

Answer 1

For me the problem came after installing a new version of node. npm install would show the error above. Then I got the error above but not for the package PreRender.Io but for gulp-sass, though I believe the problem has the same root. To solve it, I installed the previous version of node I'd been using (6.9.5) and then I used nvm to manage node versions as described here: https://www.sitepoint.com/quick-tip-multiple-versions-node-nvm/

Switching to the previous version of node using nvm meant I could do npm install without having to install a large SDK I wasn't going to end up using.