VS2015 not installed, Unreal thinks it's "missing the C++ toolchain"

When I try to create a project, I get this error:

[FONT=Courier New]An error occurred while trying to generate project files.

Running D:/UE_4.15/Engine/Binaries/DotNET/UnrealBuildTool.exe -projectfiles -project="<my path>.uproject" -game -rocket -progress
Visual Studio 2015 is installed, but is missing the C++ toolchain. Please verify that “Common Tools for Visual C++ 2015” are selected from the Visual Studio 2015 installation options.
Discovering modules, targets and source code for project…
ERROR: Visual Studio 2015 must be installed in order to build this target.

I have Visual Studio 2017 Community installed (for Unity) but not Visual Studio 2015 since I uninstalled it with Unreal to save space a while ago. I’m downloading Visual Studio Express 2015 now, but as far as I recall, Unreal installed it automatically the last time I installed the engine, correct? In that case, how do I manually install what I need for Unreal, or how do I make it re-install VS the usual way?

The download is going to take quite a while so I’m asking in the mean time so I can skip to the correct solution in case I’m doing it wrong :slight_smile:

Have you installed the VC++ 2015 SDK?

Unreal doesn’t auto-install any version of Visual Studio, and 2017 support is currently experimental IIRC.

You’ll need to install VS2015 Community Edition from the website, google old versions of VS. I’ve always found the website a nightmare to browse for old versions though…