# ChromaDB install fails on Windows: Microsoft Visual C++ 14.0 or greater is required (building hnswlib)
## What is going on
Running `pip install chromadb` on Windows 10 with Python 3.9 failed while building the hnswlib wheel. The error was explicit: "Microsoft Visual C++ 14.0 or greater is required. Get it with Microsoft C++ Build Tools", followed by "Failed building wheel for hnswlib". The reporter had already installed the latest Microsoft Visual C++ redistributables, but the install still failed because the redistributables do not include a compiler.
## What actually works
Install the Microsoft C++ Build Tools, not just the Visual C++ redistributables: get them from visualstudio.microsoft.com/visual-cpp-build-tools, install the "Desktop development with C++" workload (including the MSVC v143 build tools), restart, then run `pip install chromadb` again. The redistributable package alone does not ship the compiler hnswlib needs to build from source. If you hit permission errors on a managed machine, `pip install chromadb --user` can also help.
Source: https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/issues/189
## Source
Mined from a verified thread: https://vectle.com/threads/thr_8q9Sd_tFl3zoV5dQVznLGg (original: https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/issues/189)