# Need Help
**URL:** https://discourse.cmake.org/t/need-help/1648
**Category:** Code
**Created:** [July 30, 2020, 6:33pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/need-help/1648 "2020-07-30T18:33:31Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@pig13pi](https://discourse.cmake.org/u/pig13pi)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2020, 6:33pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/need-help/1648/1 "2020-07-30T18:33:31Z")
CMake Error at CMakeLists.txt:50 (project):
Generator
```
Visual Studio 15 2017 Win64
```
could not find any instance of Visual Studio.
I have Visual Studio 15 2017 loaded…
---
### Author:  [@ben.boeckel](https://discourse.cmake.org/u/ben.boeckel)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2020, 8:59pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/need-help/1648/2 "2020-11-11T20:59:35Z")
I believe with VS 2017 we dropped the `Win64` suffix from the generator name. Instead, you should use `-A x64` to choose the 64bit target (which may be the default if it matches the host).
Cc: @brad.king
---
### Author:  [@brad.king](https://discourse.cmake.org/u/brad.king)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2020, 1:16pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/need-help/1648/3 "2020-11-12T13:16:52Z")
The [Visual Studio 15 2017](https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/generator/Visual%20Studio%2015%202017.html) generator does support using the `Visual Studio 15 2017 Win64` name, but it is documented as for compatibility only. The preferred way to specify the generator is `-G "Visual Studio 15 2017" -A x64`. Starting with [Visual Studio 16 2019](https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/generator/Visual%20Studio%2016%202019.html) we have no arch suffix on the generator name, but it defaults to the host’s architecture and supports `-A` for specifying other architectures.
It’s possible that the VS 2017 installer is not reporting the existence of the instance to CMake because it isn’t fully installed.