Can't Open ws2_32.lib

I’m having problems getting Unreal to work correctly. I am running Windows 10 and this computer has only run Windows 10. Before I installed Unreal, I had VS Community 2015. Once I installed Unreal 4.17 I saw that it was meant to work in VS 2017 so I installed VS Community 2017 with the Game Dev option that includes the Unreal Engine (I didn’t re-install Unreal at this time). After that I uninstalled VS 2015 using the default uninstaller. Later when I tried to compile the code in my projects I kept getting link errors trying to open ws2_32.lib My computer has 4 copies of WS2_32.lib. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the Unreal Engine (just through the Epic Games Launcher) and I was able to open a project and work with it until I needed code then it said that I would have to do something to get the code integrated or something (sorry I can’t remember). After playing around a bit I found I still couldn’t compile my code in VS or Unreal because of the same error. I also found that Unreal despite being 4.17.1 is still using VS 2015 as default despite VS 2015 being uninstalled. I switched it to use 2017 as default and now I can’t create any new project of the type Basic Code and I can’t open my original project because it needs to rebuild because it’s using an old version of the engine. Here’s an error message for when I tried to create a new basic code project.
Running C:/Program Files/Epic Games/UE_4.17/Engine/Binaries/DotNET/UnrealBuildTool.exe Test3 Development Win64 -project=“C:/Users/track/Documents/Unreal Projects/Test3/Test3.uproject” -editorrecompile -progress -NoHotReloadFromIDE
Performing full C++ include scan (building a new target)
Creating makefile for Test3 (no existing makefile)
@progress push 5%
Parsing headers for Test3Editor
Running UnrealHeaderTool “C:\Users\track\Documents\Unreal Projects\Test3\Test3.uproject” “C:\Users\track\Documents\Unreal Projects\Test3\Intermediate\Build\Win64\Test3Editor\Development\Test3Editor.uhtmanifest” -LogCmds=“loginit warning, logexit warning, logdatabase error” -Unattended -WarningsAsErrors -installed
Reflection code generated for Test3Editor in 8.6801726 seconds
@progress pop
Distributing 9 actions to XGE
--------------------Build System Warning---------------------------------------
License is invalid:
License information is invalid. Please try reloading your license file using the Coordinator Monitor application on the Coordinator machine, or reinstall IncrediBuild.
This build will run in standalone mode.


--------------------Project: Default-------------------------------------------
(0:07.62 at +0:00)
SharedPCH.Engine.cpp
(0:00.35 at +0:07)
Test3.cpp
(0:00.59 at +0:08)
Test3GameModeBase.cpp
(0:00.42 at +0:08)
Test3.init.gen.cpp
(0:00.54 at +0:09)
Test3GameModeBase.gen.cpp
ModuleVersionResource.rc.inl (0:00.07 at +0:09)
PCLaunch.rc (0:00.07 at +0:09)
UE4Editor-Test3.dll (0:00.12 at +0:09)
LINK : fatal error LNK1181: cannot open input file ‘ws2_32.lib’

Error executing C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\VC\bin\amd64\link.exe (tool returned code: 1181)
---------------------- Done ----------------------

Rebuild All: 0 succeeded, 1 failed, 0 skipped

1 build system warning(s):

  • License is invalid

ERROR: UBT ERROR: Failed to produce item: C:\Users\track\Documents\Unreal Projects\Test3\Binaries\Win64\UE4Editor-Test3.dll
Total build time: 30.34 seconds (XGE executor: 0.00 seconds)

I’m getting this error too. Any luck?

Try reinstalling visual studio 2015 with all the C++ tools. This worked for me.