diff --git a/waflib/Tools/msvc.py b/waflib/Tools/msvc.py
index a8dbbc09..bf7abf01 100644
--- a/waflib/Tools/msvc.py
+++ b/waflib/Tools/msvc.py
@@ -93,7 +93,13 @@ all_icl_platforms = [ ('intel64', 'amd64'), ('em64t', 'amd64'), ('ia32', 'x86'),
 """List of icl platforms"""
 
 def options(opt):
-	opt.add_option('--msvc_version', type='string', help = 'msvc version, eg: "msvc 10.0,msvc 9.0"', default='')
+	default_ver = ''
+	vsver = os.getenv('VSCMD_VER')
+	if vsver:
+		m = re.match(r'(^\d+\.\d+).*', vsver)
+		if m:
+			default_ver = 'msvc %s' % m.group(1)
+	opt.add_option('--msvc_version', type='string', help = 'msvc version, eg: "msvc 10.0,msvc 9.0"', default=default_ver)
 	opt.add_option('--msvc_targets', type='string', help = 'msvc targets, eg: "x64,arm"', default='')
 	opt.add_option('--no-msvc-lazy', action='store_false', help = 'lazily check msvc target environments', default=True, dest='msvc_lazy')