Visual Studio Code Setup

Followed the instructions (actually - two of us over MS Teams) and we both end up with the same error:

After selecting the folder in VS Code at this step
“You should get a notification asking if you want to configure the project. Click “Yes” and select “[Unspecified]” from the “Select a Kit” dropdown for a local build with the default compiler.”
We then get the following error in the output window (truncated image)

full text is:
[rollbar] Unhandled exception: Unhandled Promise rejection: Post-folder-open TypeError: Cannot read property ‘length’ of undefined {“folder”:{“uri”:{"$mid":1,“fsPath”:“c:\Users\andre\Documents\GitHub\32blit-beta3”,"_sep":1,“external”:“file:///c%3A/Users/andre/Documents/GitHub/32blit-beta3”,“path”:"/c:/Users/andre/Documents/GitHub/32blit-beta3",“scheme”:“file”},“name”:“32blit-beta3”,“index”:0}}

This happens with or without the settings.json being modified.

In case it makes a difference I do have VS2019 installed but dont have C++ installed - just c# (and no, I dont really want to use that as my “other” beta tester doesnt have VS2019.

Any guidance on the “you stupid idiot you forgot X” much appreciated!