I ran into an issue with an npm package mis-behaving in Visual Studio 2015 but working just fine from the command line.
After scratching my head for awhile trying to figure out what was going on, I discovered that Visual Studio was pointing to its own version of npm and node and not that ones that were available in my path that the command line was using. Visual Studio 2015 ships with:
One of the most annoying features of npm for me is the spinner. Many times it runs long enough that I am wondering if it is still working or hung. Thankfully you can easily change this with the .npmrc file.
On Linux/OSx, create the file ~/.npmrc
On Windows, create the file %USERPROFILE%/.npmrc
Add the 2 lines below to the file
spin=false
loglevel=http
Save the file
Close your command prompt/terminal and reopen it.
When you are using npm, bower, and git behind a proxy server you have to do a little bit of configuration. Luckily it is super easy to do these configurations. Almost all of the programs have command line commands to set and unset the proxy server.
set http_proxy=[Your Proxy]:[Proxy Port]
set https_proxy=[Your Proxy]:[Proxy Port]
set http_proxy=
set https_proxy=
Run from an administrative command prompt