title: windows-build-tools installation is taking long time.. possibly froze
body: <p>I recently encountered an issue while executing <code>npm install</code> on on old project with below error:</p>
  <pre><code>npm ERR! path C:\Users\sdamarla\Downloads\Vue Codebase\parts-chat-ui\node_modules\node-sass
  npm ERR! command failed
  npm ERR! command C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe /d /s /c node scripts/build.js
  npm ERR! Building: C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.exe C:\Users\sdamarla\Downloads\Vue Codebase\parts-chat-ui\node_modules\node-gyp\bin\node-gyp.js rebuild --verbose --libsass_ext= --libsass_cflags= --libsass_ldflags= --libsass_library=
  npm ERR! gyp info it worked if it ends with ok
  npm ERR! gyp verb cli [
  npm ERR! gyp verb cli   'C:\\Program Files\\nodejs\\node.exe',
  npm ERR! gyp verb cli   'C:\\Users\\sdamarla\\Downloads\\Vue Codebase\\parts-chat-ui\\node_modules\\node-gyp\\bin\\node-gyp.js',
  npm ERR! gyp verb cli   'rebuild',
  npm ERR! gyp verb cli   '--verbose',
  npm ERR! gyp verb cli   '--libsass_ext=',
  npm ERR! gyp verb cli   '--libsass_cflags=',
  npm ERR! gyp verb cli   '--libsass_ldflags=',
  npm ERR! gyp verb cli   '--libsass_library='
  npm ERR! gyp verb cli ]
  npm ERR! gyp info using node-gyp@3.8.0
  npm ERR! gyp info using node@17.3.1 | win32 | x64
  npm ERR! gyp verb command rebuild []
  npm ERR! gyp verb command clean []
  npm ERR! gyp verb clean removing &quot;build&quot; directory
  npm ERR! gyp verb command configure []
  npm ERR! gyp verb check python checking for Python executable &quot;python2&quot; in the PATH
  npm ERR! gyp verb `which` failed Error: not found: python2
  npm ERR! gyp verb `which` failed     at getNotFoundError (C:\Users\sdamarla\Downloads\Vue Codebase\parts-chat-ui\node_modules\node-gyp\node_modules\which\which.js:13:12)
  npm ERR! gyp verb `which` failed     at F (C:\Users\sdamarla\Downloads\Vue Codebase\parts-chat-ui\node_modules\node-gyp\node_modules\which\which.js:68:19)
  npm ERR! gyp verb `which` failed     at E (C:\Users\sdamarla\Downloads\Vue Codebase\parts-chat-ui\node_modules\node-gyp\node_modules\which\which.js:80:29)
  npm ERR! gyp verb `which` failed     at C:\Users\sdamarla\Downloads\Vue Codebase\parts-chat-ui\node_modules\node-gyp\node_modules\which\which.js:89:16
  npm ERR! gyp verb `which` failed     at C:\Users\sdamarla\Downloads\Vue Codebase\parts-chat-ui\node_modules\isexe\index.js:42:5
  npm ERR! gyp verb `which` failed     at C:\Users\sdamarla\Downloads\Vue Codebase\parts-chat-ui\node_modules\isexe\windows.js:36:5
  npm ERR! gyp verb `which` failed     at FSReqCallback.oncomplete (node:fs:198:21)
  npm ERR! gyp verb `which` failed  python2 Error: not found: python2
  npm ERR! gyp verb `which` failed     at getNotFoundError (C:\Users\sdamarla\Downloads\Vue Codebase\parts-chat-ui\node_modules\node-gyp\node_modules\which\which.js:13:12)
  npm ERR! gyp verb `which` failed     at F (C:\Users\sdamarla\Downloads\Vue Codebase\parts-chat-ui\node_modules\node-gyp\node_modules\which\which.js:68:19)
  npm ERR! gyp verb `which` failed     at E (C:\Users\sdamarla\Downloads\Vue Codebase\parts-chat-ui\node_modules\node-gyp\node_modules\which\which.js:80:29)
  npm ERR! gyp verb `which` failed     at C:\Users\sdamarla\Downloads\Vue Codebase\parts-chat-ui\node_modules\node-gyp\node_modules\which\which.js:89:16
  npm ERR! gyp verb `which` failed     at C:\Users\sdamarla\Downloads\Vue Codebase\parts-chat-ui\node_modules\isexe\index.js:42:5
  npm ERR! gyp verb `which` failed     at C:\Users\sdamarla\Downloads\Vue Codebase\parts-chat-ui\node_modules\isexe\windows.js:36:5
  npm ERR! gyp verb `which` failed     at FSReqCallback.oncomplete (node:fs:198:21) {
  npm ERR! gyp verb `which` failed   code: 'ENOENT'
  npm ERR! gyp verb `which` failed }
  npm ERR! gyp verb check python checking for Python executable &quot;python&quot; in the PATH
  npm ERR! gyp verb `which` succeeded python C:\Python310\python.EXE
  npm ERR! gyp ERR! configure error
  npm ERR! gyp ERR! stack Error: Command failed: C:\Python310\python.EXE -c import sys; print &quot;%s.%s.%s&quot; % sys.version_info[:3];
  npm ERR! gyp ERR! stack   File &quot;&lt;string&gt;&quot;, line 1
  npm ERR! gyp ERR! stack     import sys; print &quot;%s.%s.%s&quot; % sys.version_info[:3];
  npm ERR! gyp ERR! stack                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  npm ERR! gyp ERR! stack SyntaxError: Missing parentheses in call to 'print'. Did you mean print(...)?
  npm ERR! gyp ERR! stack
  npm ERR! gyp ERR! stack     at ChildProcess.exithandler (node:child_process:397:12)
  npm ERR! gyp ERR! stack     at ChildProcess.emit (node:events:390:28)
  npm ERR! gyp ERR! stack     at maybeClose (node:internal/child_process:1062:16)
  npm ERR! gyp ERR! stack     at Socket.&lt;anonymous&gt; (node:internal/child_process:448:11)
  npm ERR! gyp ERR! stack     at Socket.emit (node:events:390:28)
  npm ERR! gyp ERR! stack     at Pipe.&lt;anonymous&gt; (node:net:687:12)
  npm ERR! gyp ERR! System Windows_NT 10.0.19042
  npm ERR! gyp ERR! command &quot;C:\\Program Files\\nodejs\\node.exe&quot; &quot;C:\\Users\\sdamarla\\Downloads\\Vue Codebase\\parts-chat-ui\\node_modules\\node-gyp\\bin\\node-gyp.js&quot; &quot;rebuild&quot; &quot;--verbose&quot; &quot;--libsass_ext=&quot; &quot;--libsass_cflags=&quot; &quot;--libsass_ldflags=&quot; &quot;--libsass_library=&quot;
  npm ERR! gyp ERR! cwd C:\Users\sdamarla\Downloads\Vue Codebase\parts-chat-ui\node_modules\node-sass
  npm ERR! gyp ERR! node -v v17.3.1
  npm ERR! gyp ERR! node-gyp -v v3.8.0
  npm ERR! gyp ERR! not ok
  npm ERR! Build failed with error code: 1
  </code></pre>
  <p>To fix this I'm trying to install windows-build-tools and somehow the installer stopped at below step and I'm not seeing any progress within an hour before I terminated the process.</p>
  <pre><code> npm install --global --production windows-build-tools
  npm WARN deprecated har-validator@5.1.5: this library is no longer supported
  npm WARN deprecated uuid@3.4.0: Please upgrade  to version 7 or higher.  Older versions may use Math.random() in certain circumstances, which is known to be problematic.  See https://v8.dev/blog/math-random for details.
  npm WARN deprecated request@2.88.2: request has been deprecated, see https://github.com/request/request/issues/3142
  npm WARN deprecated windows-build-tools@5.2.2: Node.js now includes build tools for Windows. You probably no longer need this tool. See https://github.com/felixrieseberg/windows-build-tools for details.
  [##################] \ reify:resolve: timing reifyNode:node_modules/windows-build-tools/node_modules/ajv Completed in 1596ms
  </code></pre>
  <p>Can someone please help me to fix this issue. This is not happening on my newly created projects</p>