Windows, use HiGHS without installing MS C++ Build Tools

[Andreas Wiese]

I would like to use Pyomo with HiGHS. My understanding is that for this I need APPSI and, in particular, that I need to build APPSI with the command

pyomo build-extensions

Under Windows 10, this gives me the error message 

ERROR: DistutilsPlatformError: Microsoft Visual C++ 14.0 or greater is
required. Get it with "Microsoft C++ Build Tools":
https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/visual-cpp-build-tools/

I understand that I can install the Microsoft C++ Build Tools and then build APPSI correctly. However, in order to install the MS C++ Build Tools I need to download 6 GB of data. 

I am wondering whether there is a simpler way. In particular, I would like to run my program (using Pyomo and HiGHS) on someone else's computer and if possible, I would like to avoid installing the MS C++ Build Tools there.

Is this possible? Could I maybe take the compiled APPSI from my computer and just copy it to the other computer?

Thank you very much in advance!

[Ahmad Heidari]

Hello Andreas,

I hope you are doing well.

Based on the new version of ChatGPT 4.5, you can do the following:

Instead of manually building APPSI, you can install a precompiled version of Pyomo with HiGHS solver support from conda-forge. This method avoids the need for Visual C++ build tools completely.

Run the following commands (assuming you have Anaconda/Miniconda installed):

conda create -n pyomo_env -c conda-forge pyomo coincbc highs
conda activate pyomo_env

This installs Pyomo and HiGHS solver (with APPSI support) automatically, without requiring manual compilation or Visual C++ tools.

You can verify your installation quickly:

pyomo help --solvers