diff --git a/test/spell_check.words b/test/spell_check.words
index e0ee75f..2be9d8c 100644
--- a/test/spell_check.words
+++ b/test/spell_check.words
@@ -46,6 +46,7 @@ rmtree
 rtype
 samefile
 scspell
+setenv
 setuptools
 skipif
 stepanas
diff --git a/test/test_task_cmake_build.py b/test/test_task_cmake_build.py
index 99b8172..73d391b 100644
--- a/test/test_task_cmake_build.py
+++ b/test/test_task_cmake_build.py
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 # Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0
 
 import asyncio
+import os
 from pathlib import Path
 import shutil
 from types import SimpleNamespace
@@ -25,6 +26,21 @@ def monkey_patch_put_event_into_queue(monkeypatch):
     )
 
 
+@pytest.fixture(autouse=True)
+def monkey_patch_vs_version(monkeypatch):
+    """
+    Ensure that VisualStudioVersion is set for the test.
+
+    As it stands, colcon-cmake uses the VisualStudioVersion environment
+    variable to determine if it needs to override the platform so that 64-bit
+    binaries are built on 64-bit platforms. This is normally set within
+    a developer command prompt. We don't really care in this context, so just
+    set it to something to appease the check.
+    """
+    if os.name == 'nt' and 'VisualStudioVersion' not in os.environ:
+        monkeypatch.setenv('VisualStudioVersion', '16.0')
+
+
 def _test_build_package(
     tmp_path, *, cmake_args=None, cmake_clean_cache=False,
     cmake_clean_first=False, cmake_force_configure=None,