Node packages not building on Windows 8.1 - Missing Microsoft.Cpp.Default.props

Question

NPM packages are not building on Windows 8.1 - failing with following error,

error MSB4019: The imported project \"C:\\Microsoft.Cpp.Default.props\" was not fo

Answer 1

Just in case people encounter this issue again, the issue got resolved in my case when I did a

npm install -g --production windows-build-tools

Link for reference

Related question

Answer 2

I just wanted to update this question with the latest answer. You now do not need to install Visual Studio.

Source: https://github.com/nodejs/node-gyp/issues/629#issuecomment-153196245

Instructions below in case the source goes down.

1. Install VC++ Build Tools Technical Preview using the Default Install option.

   [Windows 7 only] requires .NET Framework 4.5.1

2. Install Python 2.7, and add it to your PATH: npm config set python python2.7

3. Launch cmd and run: npm config set msvs_version 2015 --global (this is instead of lnpm install [package name] --msvs_version=2015l every time.)