title: Project missing node_modules dir but npm intall fails
body: <p>My project is missing it's node_modules dir.  I've tried running npm install, but it fails like this:</p>
  <pre><code>...
  npm WARN deprecated core-js@2.6.11: core-js@&lt;3.3 is no longer maintained and not recommended for usage due to the number of issues. Because of the V8 engine whims, feature detection in old core-js versions could cause a slowdown up to 100x even if nothing is polyfilled. Please, upgrade your dependencies to the actual version of core-js.
  npm ERR! code 1
  npm ERR! path C:\users\me\IdeaProjects\portal\cp-frontend\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\me\IdeaProjects\portal\cp-frontend\node_modules\node-gyp\bin\node-gyp.js rebuild --verbose --libsass_ext= --libsass_cflags= --libsass_ldflags= --libsass_library=
  npm ERR! Building the projects in this solution one at a time. To enable parallel build, please add the &quot;/m&quot; switch.
  npm ERR! Build started 10/1/2021 3:15:35 PM.
  npm ERR! Project &quot;C:\users\me\IdeaProjects\portal\cp-frontend\node_modules\node-sass\build\binding.sln&quot; on node 1 (default targets).
  npm ERR! ValidateSolutionConfiguration:
  npm ERR!   Building solution configuration &quot;Release|x64&quot;.
  npm ERR! Project &quot;C:\users\me\IdeaProjects\portal\cp-frontend\node_modules\node-sass\build\binding.sln&quot; (1) is building &quot;C:\users\me\IdeaProjects\portal\cp-frontend\node_modules\node-sass\build\binding.vcxproj.metaproj&quot; (2) on node 1 (default targets).
  ...
  </code></pre>
  <p>I've tried</p>
  <pre><code>npm install --global --production windows-build-tools@4.0.0
  </code></pre>
  <p>in powershell as administrator, then exit and re-enter powershell as administrator, then trying npm install but still get this error.</p>
  <p>Any ideas?  I've tried googling it, and the suggestion was npm install --global --production windows-build-tools@4.0.0 (without @4.0.0 that fails too).</p>
  <p>Looking at the packages.json file, it lists these dependencies.  I'm not sure if that is helpful or not.</p>
  <pre><code>{
    &quot;name&quot;: &quot;customer-portal-frontend&quot;,
    &quot;version&quot;: &quot;0.1.0&quot;,
    &quot;private&quot;: true,
    &quot;dependencies&quot;: {
      &quot;@testing-library/jest-dom&quot;: &quot;^4.2.4&quot;,
      &quot;@testing-library/react&quot;: &quot;^9.3.2&quot;,
      &quot;@testing-library/user-event&quot;: &quot;^7.1.2&quot;,
      &quot;antd&quot;: &quot;^4.1.0&quot;,
      &quot;autoprefixer&quot;: &quot;^9.7.6&quot;,
      &quot;axios&quot;: &quot;^0.19.2&quot;,
      &quot;classnames&quot;: &quot;^2.2.6&quot;,
      &quot;crypto-js&quot;: &quot;^4.0.0&quot;,
      &quot;dayjs&quot;: &quot;^1.8.23&quot;,
      &quot;node-sass&quot;: &quot;^4.13.1&quot;,
      &quot;normalize.css&quot;: &quot;^8.0.1&quot;,
      &quot;numeral&quot;: &quot;^2.0.6&quot;,
      &quot;query-string&quot;: &quot;^6.12.1&quot;,
      &quot;react&quot;: &quot;^16.12.0&quot;,
      &quot;react-app-polyfill&quot;: &quot;^1.0.6&quot;,
      &quot;react-dom&quot;: &quot;^16.12.0&quot;,
      &quot;react-ga&quot;: &quot;^2.7.0&quot;,
      &quot;react-helmet&quot;: &quot;^6.1.0&quot;,
      &quot;react-hook-form&quot;: &quot;^5.3.1&quot;,
      &quot;react-intercom&quot;: &quot;^1.0.15&quot;,
      &quot;react-responsive-tabs&quot;: &quot;^3.3.0&quot;,
      &quot;react-router-dom&quot;: &quot;^5.1.2&quot;,
      &quot;react-scripts&quot;: &quot;^3.4.1&quot;,
      &quot;reactn&quot;: &quot;^2.2.6&quot;,
      &quot;tailwindcss&quot;: &quot;^1.2.0&quot;,
      &quot;victory&quot;: &quot;^34.1.3&quot;
    },
    &quot;scripts&quot;: {
      &quot;start&quot;: &quot;npm run tailwind:css &amp;&amp; react-scripts start&quot;,
      &quot;build&quot;: &quot;npm run tailwind:css &amp;&amp; react-scripts build&quot;,
      &quot;test&quot;: &quot;react-scripts test&quot;,
      &quot;eject&quot;: &quot;react-scripts eject&quot;,
      &quot;tailwind:css&quot;: &quot;tailwind build src/tailwind.src.css -c tailwind.js -o src/tailwind.css&quot;
    },
    &quot;eslintConfig&quot;: {
      &quot;extends&quot;: &quot;react-app&quot;
    },
    &quot;browserslist&quot;: {
      &quot;production&quot;: [
        &quot;ie 11&quot;,
        &quot;last 1 chrome version&quot;,
        &quot;last 1 firefox version&quot;,
        &quot;last 1 safari version&quot;
      ],
      &quot;development&quot;: [
        &quot;ie 11&quot;,
        &quot;last 1 chrome version&quot;,
        &quot;last 1 firefox version&quot;,
        &quot;last 1 safari version&quot;
      ]
    }
  }
  </code></pre>
  <p>If I use npm start in the next level up dir, I get a popup regarding (but it's probably too early to do npm start since there's no node_modules dir and npm install fails)</p>
  <pre><code>Script: c:\Users\me\IdeaProjects\portal\cp-frontend\tailwind.js
  Line: 32
  Char: 7
  Error: expected identifier, string or number
  Code: 800A0404
  Source: Microsoft JScript compilation error
  </code></pre>
  <p>Update 1:</p>
  <pre><code>Ran npm install node-gyp in the frontend dir and see similar errors as npm install.  I can run that fine in the backend dir. I don't know why this dir fails.  I have windows command prompt open as administrator in both cases..not sure if that would matter.
  
  npm ERR! code 1
  npm ERR! path C:\Users\me\IdeaProjects\portal\cp-frontend\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\me\IdeaProjects\portal\cp-frontend\node_modules\node-sass\node_modules\node-gyp\bin\node-gyp.js rebuild --verbose --libsass_ext= --libsass_cflags= --libsass_ldflags= --libsass_library=
  npm ERR! Building the projects in this solution one at a time. To enable parallel build, please add the &quot;/m&quot; switch.
  npm ERR! Build started 10/4/2021 8:35:00 AM.
  npm ERR! Project &quot;C:\Users\me\IdeaProjects\portal\cp-frontend\node_modules\node-sass\build\binding.sln&quot; on node 1 (default targets).
  npm ERR! ValidateSolutionConfiguration:
  npm ERR!   Building solution configuration &quot;Release|x64&quot;.
  npm ERR! Project &quot;C:\Users\me\IdeaProjects\portal\cp-frontend\node_modules\node-sass\build\binding.sln&quot; (1) is building &quot;C:\Users\me\IdeaProjects\portal\cp-frontend\node_modules\node-sass\build\binding.vcxproj.metaproj&quot; (2) on node 1 (default targets).
  npm ERR! Project &quot;C:\Users\me\IdeaProjects\portal\cp-frontend\node_modules\node-sass\build\binding.vcxproj.metaproj&quot; (2) is building &quot;C:\Users\me\IdeaProjects\portal\cp-frontend\node_modules\node-sass\build\src\libsass.vcxproj&quot; (3) on node 1 (default targets).
  npm ERR! C:\Users\me\IdeaProjects\portal\cp-frontend\node_modules\node-sass\build\src\libsass.vcxproj(20,3): error MSB4019: The imported project &quot;C:\Microsoft.Cpp.Default.props&quot; was not found. Confirm that the path in the &lt;Import&gt; declaration is correct, and that the file exists on disk.
  </code></pre>
  <p>...</p>
  <p>Update2:
  Tried npm cache clean --force. Then npm install sass, but it's still trying to do npm install node-sass.</p>
  <pre><code>npm ERR! code 1
  npm ERR! path C:\Users\me\IdeaProjects\portal\cp-frontend\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\me\IdeaProjects\portal\cp-frontend\node_modules\node-gyp\bin\node-gyp.js rebuild --verbose --libsass_ext= --libsass_cflags= --libsass_ldflags= --libsass_library=
  npm ERR! Building the projects in this solution one at a time. To enable parallel build, please add the &quot;/m&quot; switch.
  </code></pre>