Long error messages about VSINSTALLDIR and vs2019 whenever I start Anaconda Prompt in my "base" environment

Question

I get a very long list of Windows shell script messages dumped to the console with some embedded errors about "vs2019" every time I start an Anaconda Prompt terminal on my Windows 10 64-bit system. This appears to have started when I installed an IBM JupyterLab package Elyra Snippets into my Anaconda base environment.

I do NOT get these messages if I start an Anaconda Prompt for any of the other virtual environment available on the Windows 10 "Start" Menu.

Below are full list of script console error messages that I get. There are so many that Googling does not help, even if I just search for what appears to be the main one:

"C:\Users\richadmin>CALL c:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\etc\conda\activate.d\vs2017_get_vsinstall_dir.bat
Did not find VSINSTALLDIR
Windows SDK version found as: "10.0.19041.0"
The system cannot find the path specified.
Did not find VSINSTALLDIR"

I DO have VS2019 Community Edition installed, but it appears to be looking for VS2017.

Between the Windows console messages, vs2019 & vs2017 messages, and other embedded shell scripts, this is a big rathole that I have gone down several times trying to fix it and wasting hours each time.

############################################################

Here are all of the shell messages echoed to the console.

>     C:\Users\richadmin>SET DISTUTILS_USE_SDK=1
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>SET MSSdk=1
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>SET "VS_VERSION=15.0"
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>SET "VS_MAJOR=15"
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>SET "VS_YEAR=2017"
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>set "MSYS2_ARG_CONV_EXCL=/AI;/AL;/OUT;/out"
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>set "MSYS2_ENV_CONV_EXCL=CL"
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>set "PY_VCRUNTIME_REDIST=\bin\vcruntime140.dll"
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>set "CXX=cl.exe"
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>set "CC=cl.exe"
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>CALL C:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\etc\conda\activate.d\vs2017_get_vsinstall_dir.bat
>     Did not find VSINSTALLDIR
>     Windows SDK version found as: "10.0.19041.0"
>     **********************************************************************
>     ** Visual Studio 2019 Developer Command Prompt v16.9.4
>     ** Copyright (c) 2021 Microsoft Corporation
>     **********************************************************************
>     [ERROR:vcvars.bat] Toolset directory for version '14.16' was not found.
>     [ERROR:VsDevCmd.bat] *** VsDevCmd.bat encountered errors. Environment may be incomplete and/or incorrect. ***
>     [ERROR:VsDevCmd.bat] In an uninitialized command prompt, please 'set VSCMD_DEBUG=[value]' and then re-run
>     [ERROR:VsDevCmd.bat] vsdevcmd.bat [args] for additional details.
>     [ERROR:VsDevCmd.bat] Where [value] is:
>     [ERROR:VsDevCmd.bat]    1 : basic debug logging
>     [ERROR:VsDevCmd.bat]    2 : detailed debug logging
>     [ERROR:VsDevCmd.bat]    3 : trace level logging. Redirection of output to a file when using this level is recommended.
>     [ERROR:VsDevCmd.bat] Example: set VSCMD_DEBUG=3
>     [ERROR:VsDevCmd.bat]          vsdevcmd.bat > vsdevcmd.trace.txt 2>&1
>     Did not find VSINSTALLDIR
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>SET DISTUTILS_USE_SDK=1
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>SET MSSdk=1
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>SET "VS_VERSION=16.0"
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>SET "VS_MAJOR=16"
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>SET "VS_YEAR=2019"
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>set "MSYS2_ARG_CONV_EXCL=/AI;/AL;/OUT;/out"
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>set "MSYS2_ENV_CONV_EXCL=CL"
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>set "PY_VCRUNTIME_REDIST=\bin\vcruntime140.dll"
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>set "CXX=cl.exe"
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>set "CC=cl.exe"
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>set "VSINSTALLDIR="
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>for /F "usebackq tokens=*" %i in (`vswhere.exe -nologo -products * -version [16.0,17.0) -property installationPath`) do (set "VSINSTALLDIR=%i\" )
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>(set "VSINSTALLDIR=C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\BuildTools\" )
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>(set "VSINSTALLDIR=C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community\" )
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>if not exist "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community\" (for /F "usebackq tokens=*" %i in
> (`vswhere.exe -nologo -products * -requires
> Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.v142.x86.x64 -property
> installationPath`) do (set "VSINSTALLDIR=%i\" ) )
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>if not exist "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community\" (set "VSINSTALLDIR=C:\Program Files
> (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Professional\" )
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>if not exist "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community\" (set "VSINSTALLDIR=C:\Program Files
> (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community\" )
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>if not exist "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community\" (set "VSINSTALLDIR=C:\Program Files
> (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\BuildTools\" )
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>if not exist "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community\" (set "VSINSTALLDIR=C:\Program Files
> (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Enterprise\" )
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>IF NOT "" == "" (
>     set "INCLUDE=;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\NETFXSDK\4.8\include\um;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows
> Kits\10\include\10.0.19041.0\ucrt;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows
> Kits\10\include\10.0.19041.0\shared;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows
> Kits\10\include\10.0.19041.0\um;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows
> Kits\10\include\10.0.19041.0\winrt;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows
> Kits\10\include\10.0.19041.0\cppwinrt;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows
> Kits\NETFXSDK\4.8\include\um;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows
> Kits\10\include\10.0.19041.0\ucrt;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows
> Kits\10\include\10.0.19041.0\shared;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows
> Kits\10\include\10.0.19041.0\um;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows
> Kits\10\include\10.0.19041.0\winrt;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows
> Kits\10\include\10.0.19041.0\cppwinrt"
>      set "LIB=;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\NETFXSDK\4.8\lib\um\x86;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows
> Kits\10\lib\10.0.19041.0\ucrt\x86;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows
> Kits\10\lib\10.0.19041.0\um\x86;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows
> Kits\NETFXSDK\4.8\lib\um\x64;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows
> Kits\10\lib\10.0.19041.0\ucrt\x64;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows
> Kits\10\lib\10.0.19041.0\um\x64"
>      set "CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=;"
>     )
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>call :GetWin10SdkDir
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>call :GetWin10SdkDirHelper HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node  1>nul 2>&1
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>if errorlevel 1 call :GetWin10SdkDirHelper HKCU\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node  1>nul 2>&1
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>if errorlevel 1 call :GetWin10SdkDirHelper HKLM\SOFTWARE  1>nul 2>&1
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>if errorlevel 1 call :GetWin10SdkDirHelper HKCU\SOFTWARE  1>nul 2>&1
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>if errorlevel 1 exit /B 1
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>exit /B 0
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>for /F %i in ('dir /ON /B "C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\\include\10.*"') DO (SET WindowsSDKVer=%~i )
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>(SET WindowsSDKVer=10.0.10240.0 )
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>(SET WindowsSDKVer=10.0.18362.0 )
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>(SET WindowsSDKVer=10.0.19041.0 )
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>if errorlevel 1 (echo "Didn't find any windows 10 SDK. I'm not sure if things will work, but let's try..." )  else
> (echo Windows SDK version found as: "10.0.19041.0" )
>     Windows SDK version found as: "10.0.19041.0"
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>IF 2019 GEQ 2019 (
>     set "CMAKE_GEN=Visual Studio 16 2019"
>      IF "win-64" == "win-64" (
>     set "BITS=64"
>      set "CMAKE_PLAT=x64"
>     )  ELSE (
>     set "BITS=32"
>      set "CMAKE_PLAT=Win32"
>     )
>     )  ELSE (IF "win-64" == "win-64" (
>     set "CMAKE_GEN=Visual Studio 16 2019 Win64"
>      set "BITS=64"
>     )  else (
>     set "CMAKE_GEN=Visual Studio 16 2019"
>      set "BITS=32"
>     ) )
>     
>     C:\Users\richadmin>pushd C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community\
>     
>     C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community>CALL "VC\Auxiliary\Build\vcvars64.bat" -vcvars_ver=14.29 10.0.19041.0
>     **********************************************************************
>     ** Visual Studio 2019 Developer Command Prompt v16.9.4
>     ** Copyright (c) 2021 Microsoft Corporation
>     **********************************************************************
>     [ERROR:vcvars.bat] Toolset directory for version '14.29' was not found.
>     [ERROR:VsDevCmd.bat] *** VsDevCmd.bat encountered errors. Environment may be incomplete and/or incorrect. ***
>     [ERROR:VsDevCmd.bat] In an uninitialized command prompt, please 'set VSCMD_DEBUG=[value]' and then re-run
>     [ERROR:VsDevCmd.bat] vsdevcmd.bat [args] for additional details.
>     [ERROR:VsDevCmd.bat] Where [value] is:
>     [ERROR:VsDevCmd.bat]    1 : basic debug logging
>     [ERROR:VsDevCmd.bat]    2 : detailed debug logging
>     [ERROR:VsDevCmd.bat]    3 : trace level logging. Redirection of output to a file when using this level is recommended.
>     [ERROR:VsDevCmd.bat] Example: set VSCMD_DEBUG=3
>     [ERROR:VsDevCmd.bat]          vsdevcmd.bat > vsdevcmd.trace.txt 2>&1
>     
>     (base) C:\Users\richadmin>

Answer 1

I had something similar as well. I typed conda uninstall vswhere in Anaconda prompt. The messages were gone after that.

Do look carefully at what packages will also be removed as a result, especially if you do need Visual Studio. I could do without, and hence I was able to go through with it.

'vswhere' seems to be a package that searches for where Visual Studio is located. That's why it appears to be still searching whether or not Visual Studio is actually present.