Fix Python 3 on Windows error Microsoft Visual C++ 14.0 is required

Related: Fix Python 2 error Visual C++ 10.0 missing vcvarsall.bat

Fix the error for Python on Windows:

error Microsoft Visual C++ 14.0 is required

as follows. Visual Studio Studio Build Tools requires about 3 GB of disk space.

In mid-2019, most people will want VS2017, as that’s what most software is compatible with. We are seeing increasing adoption of VS2019 as we go into the second half of 2019.

1. Install using any ONE of these choices:
   • Microsoft Build Tools for Visual Studio.
   • Alternative link to Microsoft Build Tools for Visual Studio.
   • Offline installer: vs_buildtools.exe
2. Select: Workloads → C++ build tools.
3. Install options: select only the “Windows 10 SDK” (assuming the computer is Windows 10). Optionally, if you want to use MSVC cl.exe C/C++ compiler from the command line, additionally select the C++ build tools, which takes an additional 2 GB disk space.

Notes

Windows Python needs Visual C++ libraries installed via the SDK to build code, such as via setuptools.extension.Extension or numpy.distutils.core.Extension. For example, building f2py modules in Windows with Python requires Visual C++ SDK as installed above. On Linux and Mac, the C++ libraries are installed with the compiler.

Reference

This was the former link to Microsoft Visual C++ Build Tools–no longer active: https://landinghub.visualstudio.com/visual-cpp-build-tools

• Python 3.6 & 3.7 Visual Studio 2017
• Python / Visual Studio build matrix
• Visual Studio changed the Build Tools from being C++ specific in late 2017