I am using a bunch of vcpkg based cmake projects in visual studio. I realized I don't understand how any of this works from the ground up. So I found this article:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/...

This was an interesting trip getting this to work on a newer version of an auto generated cmake project in vs. It took a bit to understand how to make the vcpkg preset work with the existing generated presets for debug/release x86/x64. Then I had the additional pain of figuring out how to include only the things I actually want from boost. I kept seeing conflicting methods because cmake versions keep changing how it is done.

I am glad to say after much swearing I finally figured out the modern way of using cmake with vcpkg and vs. It is very satisfying when everything downloads, configures, and compiles. I think vcpkg will be not that bad to work with. Still don't understand manifests yet.

Right now my libraries are not version selected. I should probably do that before it decides to install the next latest version of boost or something.