Thanks, it does seem like it's finding the correct MSVC, but is not finding the redistributable DLL:

> cl.exe /c /nologo /Ox /W3 /GL /DNDEBUG /MT ...

The "/MT" means to statically the CRT, and then we use link settings later to dynamically link the part installed in the OS (see https://stevedower.id.au/blog/building-for-python-3-5-part-two for more details).

The problem seems to be that this glob in distutils can't find the path listed below it:

"2019\BuildTools\VC\redist\MSVC\**\x64\Microsoft.VC14*.CRT\vcruntime140.dll"

"2019\BuildTools\VC\Redist\MSVC\14.24.28127\x64\Microsoft.VC142.CRT\vcruntime140.dll"

We swallow a lot of errors while doing this glob, so I assume there's something about your install that's affecting it (maybe related to it being BuildTools rather than Community or higher?)

Could you try running this code and see what result/error you get:

import glob
glob.glob(r"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\BuildTools\VC\redist\MSVC\**\x64\Microsoft.VC14*.CRT\vcruntime140.dll", recursive=True)