I have just downloaded boost 1.60 for a regular update, I have found some kind of build problem with my environment (vs2015 update 1 with Windows SDK 10.0.10586.0). I usually just do this to get a build: call bootstrap b2 headers bjam --build-type=complete --toolset=msvc-14.0 -j13 address-model=64 stage I have never required vcvarsall.bat as boost build allways finds its way. However today it wasn't able to find my windows headers so I manually did this: %comspec% /k ""C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\VC\vcvarsall.bat"" x86_amd64 10.0.10586.0 Even so I found that boost was looking for sdk 10.0.10240.0 (an older one). In my system I still had that sdk directory, however it only contained some UCRT stuff. I uninstalled deliberately that version with my visual studio setup some days ago to upgrade to the new SDK. Until now I didn't found any problems. Maybe you should check this out a bit, I can't figure out if this is a problem of my environment, microsoft or boost build. Bringing 10240 back allows me to build boost 1.60 without any problems. My biggest concern is that boost is building against 10240 when 10586 is available and both are installed, even after an explicit vcvars call to stick to 10586. Best, Isaac Lascasas.