As mentioned in issue #1715 there are some talks with removing the need for Start-PSBuild to be reliant of VS to be installed.

This isn't an easy change to make but would remove a pretty big dependency so for me would be a big win

Issues to overcome

• - Check for git install in Start-PSBootstrap (required as this isn't already checked
• - Check for the C ++ tools are installed in Start-PSBootstrap (see Start-PSBuild failing on Windows #1715 for the possible way to get this)
• - If git is not installed - Install Git in Start-PSBootStrap
• - If c++ tools are not installed - Register-PackageSource for C ++ tools that are required from Nuget feed as mentioned in Start-PSBuild failing on Windows #1715
• - If c++ tools are not installed - Install-Package for C ++ tools that are required from Nuget feed as mentioned in Start-PSBuild failing on Windows #1715
• - If c++ tools are not installed - After install Remove-PackageSource as not required after this
• - Update Start-PSBuild if required with new locations to check

I think that captures what would be needed to remove the dependency on VS being installed
@rkeithhill can you see any other tasks that may be needed?