It was the space in the directory… ID10T error on my part.
Which now, I observed even more weirdness that I can’t explain before I saw your suggestion.
But first, if spaces in directories are a problem, then why is it the default path? And why only sometimes is it a problem? I would assume it either would or wouldn’t be for everyone and the developers would account for that.
I understand the “or newer” but I would assume more people would have a problem on update or new install. And being that you have to pay ms for the backwards compatibility then why is it such a recommended free ide?
Lastly, I did manage to open a project back up in ue5 and tried compiling from within the editor, it failed claiming it couldn’t find a file in visual studios directory. I modified the install removing the latest compiler and selecting an older one. It then would compile in ue5 but still the same error in msvc. I could make changes in msvc, save without compiling, and then compile in ue5. Seemed to be a workaround but the perfectionist in me screamed fix it right.
While ultimately the true problem seemed to be the space in the default directory these are just some observations with unexpected behavior, at least by my limited knowledge in the topic. All weirdness and magic to me.
Thank you so much for all the advice and help, truly appreciated.