ZennMystic
Oh... I am running Windows 7 Pro. So all I need is the SDK? 7.0, 7.1 or 8?
I have Windows 11 and am wanting to do the same as the OP. The comments above say Build Tools. Is this still the best option in 2023?
"On the visual studio download page, there is an "all downloads" section. Click the "tools for visual studio 2019" menu, and download "Build tools for visual studio 2019". This will give you an installer similar to the regular VS installer, but it won't install the IDE."
"Oh, apparently they removed compiler starting with Windows 8 SDK: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18078755 :( In Windows 7 times the cl.exe/link.exe & other executables were included in SDK.
I guess Build Tools is the only option now."