Error compiling CUDA from Command Prompt

I'm trying to compile a cuda test program on Windows 7 via Command Prompt, I'm this command:

nvcc test.cu

But all I get is this error:

nvcc fatal : Cannot find compiler 'cl.exe' in PATH

What may be causing this error?

You will need to add the folder containing the "cl.exe" file to your path environment variable. For example:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\VC\bin

Edit: Ok, go to My Computer -> Properties -> Advanced System Settings -> Environment Variables. Here look for "PATH" in the list, and add the path above (or whatever is the location of your cl.exe).

For new Visual Studio cl.exe is present in path => C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.23.28105\bin\Hostx64\x64

x64 is for 64bit

x86 is for 32bit

Solve this problem by adding this options to nvcc

nvcc x.cu ...   -ccbin "D:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\VC\bin"

for example my compiler is VS2012. and cl.exe is in this dir

cl.exe is Microsoft's C/C++ compiler. So the problem is that you don't have that installed where the command line can find it.