Installing python package - error: Microsoft Visual C++ 14.0 or greater is required

Question

I am trying to install one package - cvxpy for python in Windows 10 and keep on getting errors related to C++ 14.0. I have followed similar questions and the answers posted:

1. I have updated to VS 2022 and the corresponding build tools.

2. I have installed MSVCv143 and Windows 10 SDK 10.0.19041.0 from build tools and have rebooted the machine.

3. I have tried to launch the developer shell from the build tools command prompt and ran it as well.

4. Since the errors are related to lapack and blas with numpy, I have installed a conda environment where the numpy is built with lapack and blas.

Nothing seems to work. The errors I am getting are:

pip install cvxpy
Collecting cvxpy
  Using cached cvxpy-1.1.17-cp39-cp39-win_amd64.whl (852 kB)
Requirement already satisfied: scipy>=1.1.0 in c:\users\kusari\appdata\local\programs\python\python39\lib\site-packages (from cvxpy) (1.7.1)
Collecting scs>=1.1.6
  Using cached scs-2.1.4.tar.gz (6.6 MB)
  Installing build dependencies ... done
  Getting requirements to build wheel ... done
  Preparing metadata (pyproject.toml) ... done
Collecting ecos>=2
  Using cached ecos-2.0.7.post1.tar.gz (126 kB)
  Preparing metadata (setup.py) ... done
Collecting osqp>=0.4.1
  Using cached osqp-0.6.2.post0-cp39-cp39-win_amd64.whl (162 kB)
Requirement already satisfied: numpy>=1.15 in c:\users\kusari\appdata\local\programs\python\python39\lib\site-packages (from cvxpy) (1.19.4)
Collecting qdldl
  Using cached qdldl-0.1.5.post0-cp39-cp39-win_amd64.whl (74 kB)
Building wheels for collected packages: ecos, scs
  Building wheel for ecos (setup.py) ... error
    ERROR: Command errored out with exit status 1:
   command: 'C:\Users\kusari\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python39\python.exe' -u -c 'import io, os, sys, setuptools, tokenize; sys.argv[0] = '"'"'C:\\Users\\kusari\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\2\\pip-install-rd0d64ho\\ecos_08dde659623a4480b5813511b29f1209\\setup.py'"'"'; __file__='"'"'C:\\Users\\kusari\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\2\\pip-install-rd0d64ho\\ecos_08dde659623a4480b5813511b29f1209\\setup.py'"'"';f = getattr(tokenize, '"'"'open'"'"', open)(__file__) if os.path.exists(__file__) else io.StringIO('"'"'from setuptools import setup; setup()'"'"');code = f.read().replace('"'"'\r\n'"'"', '"'"'\n'"'"');f.close();exec(compile(code, __file__, '"'"'exec'"'"'))' bdist_wheel -d 'C:\Users\kusari\AppData\Local\Temp\2\pip-wheel-ogl08c5t'
       cwd: C:\Users\kusari\AppData\Local\Temp\2\pip-install-rd0d64ho\ecos_08dde659623a4480b5813511b29f1209\
  Complete output (12 lines):
  running bdist_wheel
  running build
  running build_py
  creating build
  creating build\lib.win-amd64-3.9
  creating build\lib.win-amd64-3.9\ecos
  copying src\ecos\ecos.py -> build\lib.win-amd64-3.9\ecos
  copying src\ecos\version.py -> build\lib.win-amd64-3.9\ecos
  copying src\ecos\__init__.py -> build\lib.win-amd64-3.9\ecos
  running build_ext
  building '_ecos' extension
  error: Microsoft Visual C++ 14.0 or greater is required. Get it with "Microsoft C++ Build Tools": https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/visual-cpp-build-tools/
  ----------------------------------------
  ERROR: Failed building wheel for ecos
  Running setup.py clean for ecos
  Building wheel for scs (pyproject.toml) ... error
  ERROR: Command errored out with exit status 1:
   command: 'C:\Users\kusari\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python39\python.exe' 'C:\Users\kusari\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python39\lib\site-packages\pip\_vendor\pep517\in_process\_in_process.py' build_wheel 'C:\Users\kusari\AppData\Local\Temp\2\tmp9qqjrwh5'
       cwd: C:\Users\kusari\AppData\Local\Temp\2\pip-install-rd0d64ho\scs_9b8a5ab0fbd7442bab5358ce5e781772
  Complete output (82 lines):
  Namespace(scs=False, gpu=False, float32=False, extraverbose=False, gpu_atrans=True, int32=False, blas64=False)
  running bdist_wheel
  running build
  running build_py
  creating build
  creating build\lib.win-amd64-3.9
  creating build\lib.win-amd64-3.9\scs
  copying src\__init__.py -> build\lib.win-amd64-3.9\scs
  running build_ext
  blas_mkl_info:
    NOT AVAILABLE
  blis_info:
    NOT AVAILABLE
  openblas_info:
      library_dirs = ['D:\\a\\1\\s\\numpy\\build\\openblas_info']
      libraries = ['openblas_info']
      language = f77
      define_macros = [('HAVE_CBLAS', None)]
  blas_opt_info:
      library_dirs = ['D:\\a\\1\\s\\numpy\\build\\openblas_info']
      libraries = ['openblas_info']
      language = f77
      define_macros = [('HAVE_CBLAS', None)]
  lapack_mkl_info:
    NOT AVAILABLE
  openblas_lapack_info:
      library_dirs = ['D:\\a\\1\\s\\numpy\\build\\openblas_lapack_info']
      libraries = ['openblas_lapack_info']
      language = f77
      define_macros = [('HAVE_CBLAS', None)]
  lapack_opt_info:
      library_dirs = ['D:\\a\\1\\s\\numpy\\build\\openblas_lapack_info']
      libraries = ['openblas_lapack_info']
      language = f77
      define_macros = [('HAVE_CBLAS', None)]
  Could not locate executable g77
  Could not locate executable f77
  Could not locate executable ifort
  Could not locate executable ifl
  Could not locate executable f90
  Could not locate executable DF
  Could not locate executable efl
  Could not locate executable gfortran
  Could not locate executable f95
  Could not locate executable g95
  Could not locate executable efort
  Could not locate executable efc
  Could not locate executable flang
  don't know how to compile Fortran code on platform 'nt'
  C:\Users\kusari\AppData\Local\Temp\2\pip-build-env-rade5sel\overlay\Lib\site-packages\numpy\distutils\system_info.py:1914: UserWarning:
      Optimized (vendor) Blas libraries are not found.
      Falls back to netlib Blas library which has worse performance.
      A better performance should be easily gained by switching
      Blas library.
    if self._calc_info(blas):
  C:\Users\kusari\AppData\Local\Temp\2\pip-build-env-rade5sel\overlay\Lib\site-packages\numpy\distutils\system_info.py:1914: UserWarning:
      Blas (http://www.netlib.org/blas/) libraries not found.
      Directories to search for the libraries can be specified in the
      numpy/distutils/site.cfg file (section [blas]) or by setting
      the BLAS environment variable.
    if self._calc_info(blas):
  C:\Users\kusari\AppData\Local\Temp\2\pip-build-env-rade5sel\overlay\Lib\site-packages\numpy\distutils\system_info.py:1914: UserWarning:
      Blas (http://www.netlib.org/blas/) sources not found.
      Directories to search for the sources can be specified in the
      numpy/distutils/site.cfg file (section [blas_src]) or by setting
      the BLAS_SRC environment variable.
    if self._calc_info(blas):
  C:\Users\kusari\AppData\Local\Temp\2\pip-build-env-rade5sel\overlay\Lib\site-packages\numpy\distutils\system_info.py:1748: UserWarning:
      Lapack (http://www.netlib.org/lapack/) libraries not found.
      Directories to search for the libraries can be specified in the
      numpy/distutils/site.cfg file (section [lapack]) or by setting
      the LAPACK environment variable.
    return getattr(self, '_calc_info_{}'.format(name))()
  C:\Users\kusari\AppData\Local\Temp\2\pip-build-env-rade5sel\overlay\Lib\site-packages\numpy\distutils\system_info.py:1748: UserWarning:
      Lapack (http://www.netlib.org/lapack/) sources not found.
      Directories to search for the sources can be specified in the
      numpy/distutils/site.cfg file (section [lapack_src]) or by setting
      the LAPACK_SRC environment variable.
    return getattr(self, '_calc_info_{}'.format(name))()
  {}
  {}
  error: Microsoft Visual C++ 14.0 or greater is required. Get it with "Microsoft C++ Build Tools": https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/visual-cpp-build-tools/
  ----------------------------------------
  ERROR: Failed building wheel for scs
Failed to build ecos scs
ERROR: Could not build wheels for scs, which is required to install pyproject.toml-based projects

I am unable to install any packages which rely on MSVC internally. Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

I was recently struggling with this issue myself, where I had MSVC installed but I could not get python to detect it. This is what solved it for me:

Clear the registry key that is mentioned in this SO thread: https://stackoverflow.com/a/64389979/15379178

Some additional info:

In short, there was an invalid path/file that my CMD was trying to load (unrelated to MSVC/Python) that was left there by an anaconda installation I had some time ago, giving me a "The system cannot find the path specified" error and it was causing python to think that I didn't have MSVC installed.

It took me quite some time to realise that the error was unrelated to MSVC/Python (I'd done quite a few reinstalls but to no avail).

Since you mention that you actually have conda installed, this exact solution may not work for you. In that case, I suggest looking at similar things (invalid paths) that may be causing python to be indirectly affected like it was in my case. Hope this helps!