Visual Studio: missing Shortcut: "Visual Studio Command Prompt"

Question

Because the VS 2015 Installer was crashing all the time, I had to use the silent installation. Now I don't have the "Visual Studio Command Prompt" Shortcut in Start menu. Can I find it somewhere else?

Answer 1

I had to create the shortcuts manually as well, but they all follow the same pattern so no biggie:

%comspec% /k ""C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\VC\vcvarsall.bat"" x86

Don't forget to change the execution path to: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\VC\"

Replace the last bit (x86) with the tool you want to use:

• x86
• amd64
• arm
• x86_arm
• x86_amd64
• amd64_x86
• amd64_arm

Answer 2

Visual studio command prompt is nothing but the regular command prompt where few environment variables are set by default. This variables are set in the batch script : C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\Tools\VsDevCmd.bat . So basically to get a visual studio command prompt for a particular version, just open regular command prompt and run this batch script : C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\Tools\VsDevCmd.bat (Change the visual studio version based on your installed version). Voila you have got the visual studio command prompt. You can write a script to run the batch file and open cmd.exe and have a shortcut for the same.