I posted this issue originally on the boost list, largely to inform that I have been able to compile boost_1_71_0_b1_rc1 using VS 2019. See that post here: <https://lists.boost.org/Archives/boost/2019/07/246678.php> I moved this post here because I think my subsequent problem has to do with setting up Visual Studio 2019. I have followed the Getting Started in Windows <https://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_70_0/more/getting_started/windows.html> tutorial and was able to build the simple program, aka the header only project, in VS. It compiled and ran fine. I then built the project that links your program to the Boost Library described in the tutorial. I received the following message when I compiled as x64. 1>LINK : fatal error LNK1104: cannot open file 'libboost_regex-vc142-mt-gd-x64-1_71.lib' As you can see in my original email post referred to above, I built another simple program based upon a youtube video and on VS2017 and while it compiled in the youtube video, I received a the same linker error, LNK1104 message as well. Since the file referred toin the LNK1104 error has the prefix lib, it appears that VS is looking for a static library. I built boost as shared from the Develop command line using the command. .\bj2 link=shared . This method apparently worked in VS2017 but I can not replicate it in VS2019. What am I missing?