Can't compile rust program

Question

I'm new to rust and made a simple rust program(hello world). I installed rust and Visual Studio from here - https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/ and restarted the device. However when I type in rustc <path> on command prompt, I get:

error: linker `link.exe` not found
  |
  = note: The system cannot find the file specified. (os error 2)

note: the msvc targets depend on the msvc linker but `link.exe` was not found

note: please ensure that VS 2013, VS 2015 or VS 2017 was installed with the Visual C++ option

error: aborting due to previous error

What's wrong?

Update

I updated my system path to include C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\BuildTools\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.22.27905\bin\Hostx64\x64, but now it gives this error:

error: linking with `link.exe` failed: exit code: 1181
  |
  = note: "link.exe" "/NOLOGO" "/NXCOMPAT" "/LIBPATH:C:\\Users\\Sid\\.rustup\\toolchains\\stable-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\\lib\\rustlib\\x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\\lib" "main.main.7rcbfp3g-cgu.0.rcgu.o" "main.main.7rcbfp3g-cgu.1.rcgu.o" "main.main.7rcbfp3g-cgu.2.rcgu.o" "main.main.7rcbfp3g-cgu.3.rcgu.o" "main.main.7rcbfp3g-cgu.4.rcgu.o" "main.main.7rcbfp3g-cgu.5.rcgu.o" "/OUT:main.exe" "main.4s37gsrti678ik8u.rcgu.o" "/OPT:REF,NOICF" "/DEBUG" "/NATVIS:C:\\Users\\Sid\\.rustup\\toolchains\\stable-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\\lib\\rustlib\\etc\\intrinsic.natvis" "/NATVIS:C:\\Users\\Sid\\.rustup\\toolchains\\stable-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\\lib\\rustlib\\etc\\liballoc.natvis" "/NATVIS:C:\\Users\\Sid\\.rustup\\toolchains\\stable-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\\lib\\rustlib\\etc\\libcore.natvis" "/LIBPATH:C:\\Users\\Sid\\.rustup\\toolchains\\stable-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\\lib\\rustlib\\x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\\lib" "C:\\Users\\Sid\\.rustup\\toolchains\\stable-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\\lib\\rustlib\\x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\\lib\\libstd-b2f27b8d08c4688f.rlib" "C:\\Users\\Sid\\.rustup\\toolchains\\stable-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\\lib\\rustlib\\x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\\lib\\libpanic_unwind-9c73c9c2e052b2f1.rlib" "C:\\Users\\Sid\\.rustup\\toolchains\\stable-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\\lib\\rustlib\\x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\\lib\\libbacktrace-7a588e8fa018f6bc.rlib" "C:\\Users\\Sid\\.rustup\\toolchains\\stable-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\\lib\\rustlib\\x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\\lib\\librustc_demangle-74b71f441b8acffe.rlib" "C:\\Users\\Sid\\.rustup\\toolchains\\stable-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\\lib\\rustlib\\x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\\lib\\libhashbrown-42efce06651eab9c.rlib" "C:\\Users\\Sid\\.rustup\\toolchains\\stable-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\\lib\\rustlib\\x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\\lib\\librustc_std_workspace_alloc-7518db6030684168.rlib" "C:\\Users\\Sid\\.rustup\\toolchains\\stable-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\\lib\\rustlib\\x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\\lib\\libunwind-f7edde5930d50b47.rlib" "C:\\Users\\Sid\\.rustup\\toolchains\\stable-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\\lib\\rustlib\\x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\\lib\\libcfg_if-30189c8e78e151e8.rlib" "C:\\Users\\Sid\\.rustup\\toolchains\\stable-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\\lib\\rustlib\\x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\\lib\\liblibc-5f5719f1cab83a12.rlib" "C:\\Users\\Sid\\.rustup\\toolchains\\stable-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\\lib\\rustlib\\x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\\lib\\liballoc-f297c401e81b90c6.rlib" "C:\\Users\\Sid\\.rustup\\toolchains\\stable-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\\lib\\rustlib\\x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\\lib\\librustc_std_workspace_core-f8c80c1aefab6a32.rlib" "C:\\Users\\Sid\\.rustup\\toolchains\\stable-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\\lib\\rustlib\\x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\\lib\\libcore-6d66b6e58725d3ed.rlib" "C:\\Users\\Sid\\.rustup\\toolchains\\stable-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\\lib\\rustlib\\x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\\lib\\libcompiler_builtins-1f6a73e107798f53.rlib" "advapi32.lib" "ws2_32.lib" "userenv.lib" "msvcrt.lib"
  = note: LINK : fatal error LNK1181: cannot open input file 'advapi32.lib'


error: aborting due to previous error

Answer 1

This reports your exact problem. So the solution seems to use VS installer and installing C++ for Desktop Module.

Use of rustup is a matter of convenience but shouldn't be mandatory.