Is anyone using Windows to Develop Theia based IDE in recent days ?

[maheshrajrp]

Hi Everyone,
I've been trying to initialize a Custom IDE using Theia for past few days. I am completely unsuccessful in Windows (Got Linux working right out of the box), I've been frequented with errors,

It starts with yo theia-extension

Logs:

 D:\poc\my-theia-app> yo theia-extension
? The extension's type Hello World
? The extension's name hello-world
HelloWorld
   create package.json
   create lerna.json
   create .gitignore
   create README.md
   create .vscode\launch.json
   create hello-world\package.json
   create hello-world\tsconfig.json
   create hello-world\src\browser\hello-world-frontend-module.ts
   create hello-world\src\browser\hello-world-contribution.ts
   create hello-world\README.md
   create browser-app\package.json
   create electron-app\package.json
Installing dependencies
node:events:496
      throw er; // Unhandled 'error' event
      ^

Error: spawn npm ENOENT
    at ChildProcess._handle.onexit (node:internal/child_process:285:19)
    at onErrorNT (node:internal/child_process:483:16)
    at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:90:21)
Emitted 'error' event on ChildProcess instance at:
    at ChildProcess._handle.onexit (node:internal/child_process:291:12)
    at onErrorNT (node:internal/child_process:483:16)
    at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:90:21) {
  errno: -4058,
  code: 'ENOENT',
  syscall: 'spawn npm',
  path: 'npm',
  spawnargs: [ 'install' ]
}

Next install, the nightmarish node-gyp issue. I'm pretty sure I installed Visual Studio with Development C++, and Python. Though the yeoman generator crashed, it created the necessary files at least, so I went ahead and ran npm install and was welcomed with the following errors,

<some-info-messages>
...
8734 verbose stack Error: command failed
8734 verbose stack     at promiseSpawn (C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\@npmcli\promise-spawn\lib\index.js:22:22)
8734 verbose stack     at spawnWithShell (C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\@npmcli\promise-spawn\lib\index.js:124:10)
8734 verbose stack     at promiseSpawn (C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\@npmcli\promise-spawn\lib\index.js:12:12)
8734 verbose stack     at runScriptPkg (C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\@npmcli\run-script\lib\run-script-pkg.js:77:13)
8734 verbose stack     at runScript (C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\@npmcli\run-script\lib\run-script.js:9:12)
8734 verbose stack     at C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\@npmcli\arborist\lib\arborist\rebuild.js:329:17
8734 verbose stack     at run (C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\promise-call-limit\dist\commonjs\index.js:67:22)
8734 verbose stack     at C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\promise-call-limit\dist\commonjs\index.js:84:9
8734 verbose stack     at new Promise (<anonymous>)
8734 verbose stack     at callLimit (C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\promise-call-limit\dist\commonjs\index.js:35:69)
8735 verbose pkgid [email protected]
8736 error code 1
8737 error path D:\poc\my-theia-app\node_modules\node-pty
8738 error command failed
8739 error command C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe /d /s /c node-gyp rebuild
8740 error Build started 12-07-2025 17:11:28.
8740 error
8740 error Project "D:\poc\my-theia-app\node_modules\node-pty\build\binding.sln" on node 1 (default targets).
8740 error ValidateSolutionConfiguration:
8740 error   Building solution configuration "Release|x64".
8740 error Project "D:\poc\my-theia-app\node_modules\node-pty\build\binding.sln" (1) is building "D:\poc\my-theia-app\node_modules\node-pty\node-addon-api\node_addon_api_except.vcxproj" (2) on node 1 (default targets).
8740 error PrepareForBuild:
8740 error   Creating directory "Release\obj\node_addon_api_except\".
8740 error   Structured output is enabled. The formatting of compiler diagnostics will reflect the error hierarchy. See https://aka.ms/cpp/structured-output for more details.
8740 error   Creating directory "D:\poc\my-theia-app\node_modules\node-pty\build\Release\".
8740 error   Creating directory "Release\obj\node_addon_api_except\node_add.241C90E2.tlog\".
8740 error InitializeBuildStatus:
8740 error   Creating "Release\obj\node_addon_api_except\node_add.241C90E2.tlog\unsuccessfulbuild" because "AlwaysCreate" was specified.
8740 error   Touching "Release\obj\node_addon_api_except\node_add.241C90E2.tlog\unsuccessfulbuild".
8740 error FinalizeBuildStatus:
8740 error   Deleting file "Release\obj\node_addon_api_except\node_add.241C90E2.tlog\unsuccessfulbuild".
8740 error   Touching "Release\obj\node_addon_api_except\node_add.241C90E2.tlog\node_addon_api_except.lastbuildstate".
8740 error Done Building Project "D:\poc\my-theia-app\node_modules\node-pty\node-addon-api\node_addon_api_except.vcxproj" (default targets).
8740 error Project "D:\poc\my-theia-app\node_modules\node-pty\build\binding.sln" (1) is building "D:\poc\my-theia-app\node_modules\node-pty\build\conpty.vcxproj.metaproj" (3) on node 1 (default targets).
8740 error Project "D:\poc\my-theia-app\node_modules\node-pty\build\conpty.vcxproj.metaproj" (3) is building "D:\poc\my-theia-app\node_modules\node-pty\build\conpty.vcxproj" (4) on node 1 (default targets).
8740 error PrepareForBuild:
8740 error   Creating directory "Release\obj\conpty\".
8740 error C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\MSBuild\Microsoft\VC\v170\Microsoft.CppBuild.targets(511,5): error MSB8040: Spectre-mitigated libraries are required for this project. Install them from the Visual Studio installer (Individual components tab) for any toolsets and architectures being used. Learn more: https://aka.ms/Ofhn4c [D:\poc\my-theia-app\node_modules\node-pty\build\conpty.vcxproj]
8740 error Done Building Project "D:\poc\my-theia-app\node_modules\node-pty\build\conpty.vcxproj" (default targets) -- FAILED.
8740 error Done Building Project "D:\poc\my-theia-app\node_modules\node-pty\build\conpty.vcxproj.metaproj" (default targets) -- FAILED.
8740 error Project "D:\poc\my-theia-app\node_modules\node-pty\build\binding.sln" (1) is building "D:\poc\my-theia-app\node_modules\node-pty\build\conpty_console_list.vcxproj.metaproj" (5) on node 1 (default targets).
8740 error Project "D:\poc\my-theia-app\node_modules\node-pty\build\conpty_console_list.vcxproj.metaproj" (5) is building "D:\poc\my-theia-app\node_modules\node-pty\build\conpty_console_list.vcxproj" (6) on node 1 (default targets).
8740 error PrepareForBuild:
8740 error   Creating directory "Release\obj\conpty_console_list\".
8740 error C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\MSBuild\Microsoft\VC\v170\Microsoft.CppBuild.targets(511,5): error MSB8040: Spectre-mitigated libraries are required for this project. Install them from the Visual Studio installer (Individual components tab) for any toolsets and architectures being used. Learn more: https://aka.ms/Ofhn4c [D:\poc\my-theia-app\node_modules\node-pty\build\conpty_console_list.vcxproj]
8740 error Done Building Project "D:\poc\my-theia-app\node_modules\node-pty\build\conpty_console_list.vcxproj" (default targets) -- FAILED.
8740 error Done Building Project "D:\poc\my-theia-app\node_modules\node-pty\build\conpty_console_list.vcxproj.metaproj" (default targets) -- FAILED.
8740 error Project "D:\poc\my-theia-app\node_modules\node-pty\build\binding.sln" (1) is building "D:\poc\my-theia-app\node_modules\node-pty\build\deps\winpty\src\winpty-agent.vcxproj" (7) on node 1 (default targets).
8740 error PrepareForBuild:
...
<the logs keeps on  going with other sets of errors>

I actually made peace with DevContainers for some time, until I realized DevContainers doesn't support Electron.

Wanted your opinion to see how you've tackled this Windows Issue,

Thanks

[msujew]

Hey @maheshrajrp,

you might be running outdated node.js/windows build tools installations. We updated our native stack (Electron, node.js, node-gyp) with 1.63.0. See #15972.

[maheshrajrp]

Thanks for responding. I'm using Node 22, tried the windows-build-tools too. didn't work. maybe I'm missing something, not sure.

[ngfelixl]

As mentioned in the referenced discussion:

You probably need the Visual Studio component

MSVC v143 - VS 2022 C++ x64/x86 Spectre-mitigated libs (Latest)