I’m sure many beginners using python will face the problem “Unable to find vcvarsall.bat” when run “pip install” for certain packages in clean windows. What beginners like me will do next is seeking Mr. Google or Ms. Yahoo for help and usually ended at Stackoverflow with a long tread telling you in details what went wrong and you need something like Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 Redistributable or MingW.
Frankly speaking usually these methods is tedious and might ended up not working especially for newbie programmers. As a newbie programmer myself, I would recommend download Visual Studio Community 2013, it is free for personal and use of small teams of developers. What are you waiting for, go download the compiler and you can run pip install everything packages smoothly by now.
Enable a 64-Bit Visual C++ Toolset on the Command Line
Visual C++ includes compilers that you can use to create apps that can run on a 32-bit, 64-bit, or ARM-based Windows operating system.
The following list describes the various versions of cl.exe (the Visual C++ compiler):
x86 on x86: Use this to create output files for x86 machines. This version of cl.exe runs as a 32-bit process, native on an x86 machine and under WOW64 on a 64-bit Windows operating system.
x64 on x86 (x64 cross-compiler): Use this to create output files for x64. This version of cl.exe runs as a 32-bit process, native on an x86 machine and under WOW64 on a 64-bit Windows operating system.
ARM on x86 (ARM cross compiler): Use this to create output files for ARM machines. This version of cl.exe runs as a 32-bit process, native on an x86 machine and under WOW64 on a 64-bit Windows operating system.
x86 on x64: Use this to create output files for x86 machines. This version of cl.exe runs as a native process on a 64-bit Windows operating system.
x64 on x64: Use this to create output files for x64 machines. This version of cl.exe runs as a native process on a 64-bit Windows operating system.
ARM on x64 (ARM cross compiler): Use this to create output files for ARM machines. This version of cl.exe runs as a native 64-bit process on a 64-bit Windows operating system.
Vcvarsall.bat
Any of the compilers can be used on the command line by running the Vcvarsall.bat batch file to configure the path and environment variables that enable the compiler toolset. By default, the full path of this file is either C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\VC\vcvarsall.bat on 32-bit Windows operating systems, or C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\VC\vcvarsall.bat on 64-bit systems.
If no arguments are provided, the Vcvarsall.bat batch file configures the environment variables for using the x86, 32-bit compiler. However, you can use it to configure any of the compilers. If you specify a compiler configuration that is not installed or is not available on your build computer architecture, you will get an error message. The following table shows the supported arguments.
Vcvarsall.bat argument: x86
Compiler: 32-bit Native
Build-computer architecture: x86, x64, Itanium
Build output architecture: x86
Vcvarsall.bat argument: x86_amd64
Compiler: x64 Cross
Build-computer architecture: x86, x64, Itanium
Build output architecture: x64
Vcvarsall.bat argument: x86_ia64
Compiler: Itanium Cross
Build-computer architecture: x86, x64, Itanium
Build output architecture: Itanium
Vcvarsall.bat argument: amd64
Compiler: x64 Native
Build-computer architecture: x64
Build output architecture: x64
Vcvarsall.bat argument: ia64
Compiler: Itanium Native
Build-computer architecture: Itanium
Build output architecture: Itanium
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Reference:
How to: Enable a 64-Bit Visual C++ Toolset at the Command Line http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/x4d2c09s
