Rhino 6 C++ SDK Plugin Wizard for VS2017 not creating solution files

Hello, I am trying to start developing a modelling plug-in for rhino 6 (windows). i have configured my environment as detailed here

And i am trying to create the dummy plug-in detailed here

But when i try creating a VS solution through the Thino 6 Plugin Wizard, after i click finish, i starts a loop to create more solutions. When i check the folders created, there is only a corrupt/un-openable plugin.vsprojx file. none of the other files mentioned in the tutorial above are present.

Any idea on how to solve this?

NOTE: i have not installed the workloads for universal windows development nor those for .NET - Only those for Desktop for C++
NOTE: VS2017 as well as Rhino SDK are freshly installed - should be latest versions

found solution in this thread