I wanted to build thrift on windows and stumbled across cppan and these examples. I was hopeful to make my life easier, but following your instructions, the build fails.
1.:

cmake ..
-- Building for: Visual Studio 15 2017
-- The C compiler identification is MSVC 19.10.25019.0
-- The CXX compiler identification is MSVC 19.10.25019.0
-- Check for working C compiler: D:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2017/Community/VC/Tools/MSVC/14.10.25017/bin/HostX86/x86/cl.exe
-- Check for working C compiler: D:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2017/Community/VC/Tools/MSVC/14.10.25017/bin/HostX86/x86/cl.exe -- works
-- Detecting C compiler ABI info
-- Detecting C compiler ABI info - done
-- Check for working CXX compiler: D:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2017/Community/VC/Tools/MSVC/14.10.25017/bin/HostX86/x86/cl.exe
-- Check for working CXX compiler: D:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2017/Community/VC/Tools/MSVC/14.10.25017/bin/HostX86/x86/cl.exe -- works
-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info
-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info - done
-- Detecting CXX compile features
-- Detecting CXX compile features - done
CMake Error at CMakeLists.txt:23 (add_subdirectory):
add_subdirectory given source "cppan" which is not an existing directory.

-- Configuring incomplete, errors occurred!

After changing line 23 in the CMakeLists.txt to add .cppan as a subdirectory I got to the next error
2.:

CMake Error at C:/Program Files/CMake/share/cmake-3.8/Modules/FindPackageHandleStandardArgs.cmake:137 (message):
Could NOT find FLEX (missing: FLEX_EXECUTABLE)

So i did choco install winflexbison and at least the cmake .. part worked. It should probably be mentioned in the readme that this is needed for this step.
Ultimately the last step still failed with following errors:

"D:\cppan\examples-master\thrift\build\ALL_BUILD.vcxproj" (Standardziel) (

1. ->
   "D:\cppan\examples-master\thrift\build\client.vcxproj" (Standardziel) (3)
   ->
   "D:\cppan\examples-master\thrift\build\net.vcxproj" (Standardziel) (4) ->
   "D:\cppan\examples-master\thrift\build.cppan\cppan-d-b.vcxproj" (Standard
   ziel) (5) ->
   "D:\cppan\examples-master\thrift\build.cppan\cppan-d-b-d.vcxproj" (Standa
   rdziel) (6) ->
   (CustomBuild Ziel) ->
   C:\Users\localUser.cppan\storage\src\e3\76\144a\lib\cpp\src\thrift/protocol/TCompactProtocol.tcc(24): f
   atal error C1083: Datei (Include) kann nicht ge´┐¢ffnet werden: "thrift/config.h": No such file or dir
   ectory (Quelldatei wird kompiliert C:\Users\localUser.cppan\storage\src\e3\76\144a\lib\cpp\src\thrift\pro
   tocol\THeaderProtocol.cpp) [C:\Users\localUser.cppan\storage\obj\e3\76\144a\build\0824cd06\cppan\e376144a
   \e376144a.vcxproj] [D:\cppan\examples-master\thrift\build.cppan\cppan-d-b
   -d.vcxproj]
   C:\Users\localUser.cppan\storage\src\e3\76\144a\lib\cpp\src\thrift/protocol/TCompactProtocol.tcc(24): f
   atal error C1083: Datei (Include) kann nicht ge´┐¢ffnet werden: "thrift/config.h": No such file or dir
   ectory (Quelldatei wird kompiliert C:\Users\localUser.cppan\storage\src\e3\76\144a\lib\cpp\src\thrift\tra
   nsport\THeaderTransport.cpp) [C:\Users\localUser.cppan\storage\obj\e3\76\144a\build\0824cd06\cppan\e37614
   4a\e376144a.vcxproj] [D:\cppan\examples-master\thrift\build.cppan\cppan-d
   -b-d.vcxproj]
   C:\Users\localUser.cppan\storage\src\e3\76\144a\lib\cpp\src\thrift\windows\OverlappedSubmissionThread.c
   pp(23): fatal error C1083: Datei (Include) kann nicht ge´┐¢ffnet werden: "boost/scope_exit.hpp": No su
   ch file or directory [C:\Users\localUser.cppan\storage\obj\e3\76\144a\build\0824cd06\cppan\e376144a\e3761
   44a.vcxproj] [D:\cppan\examples-master\thrift\build.cppan\cppan-d-b-d.vcx
   proj]
   C:\Users\localUser.cppan\storage\src\e3\76\144a\lib\cpp\src\thrift/protocol/TCompactProtocol.tcc(24): f
   atal error C1083: Datei (Include) kann nicht ge´┐¢ffnet werden: "thrift/config.h": No such file or dir
   ectory (Quelldatei wird kompiliert C:\Users\localUser.cppan\storage\src\e3\76\144a\lib\cpp\src\thrift\pro
   tocol\THeaderProtocol.cpp) [C:\Users\localUser.cppan\storage\obj\e3\76\144a\build\0824cd06\cppan\e376144a
   \e376144a.vcxproj] [D:\cppan\examples-master\thrift\build.cppan\cppan-d-b
   -d.vcxproj]
   C:\Users\localUser.cppan\storage\src\e3\76\144a\lib\cpp\src\thrift/protocol/TCompactProtocol.tcc(24): f
   atal error C1083: Datei (Include) kann nicht ge´┐¢ffnet werden: "thrift/config.h": No such file or dir
   ectory (Quelldatei wird kompiliert C:\Users\localUser.cppan\storage\src\e3\76\144a\lib\cpp\src\thrift\tra
   nsport\THeaderTransport.cpp) [C:\Users\localUser.cppan\storage\obj\e3\76\144a\build\0824cd06\cppan\e37614
   4a\e376144a.vcxproj] [D:\cppan\examples-master\thrift\build.cppan\cppan-d
   -b-d.vcxproj]
   C:\Users\localUser.cppan\storage\src\e3\76\144a\lib\cpp\src\thrift\windows\OverlappedSubmissionThread.c
   pp(23): fatal error C1083: Datei (Include) kann nicht ge´┐¢ffnet werden: "boost/scope_exit.hpp": No su
   ch file or directory [C:\Users\localUser.cppan\storage\obj\e3\76\144a\build\0824cd06\cppan\e376144a\e3761
   44a.vcxproj] [D:\cppan\examples-master\thrift\build.cppan\cppan-d-b-d.vcx
   proj]
   CUSTOMBUILD : Last execute_process() with message '' failed with error : 1 [D:\localUser\Downloads\Progr
   amming\cppan\examples-master\thrift\build.cppan\cppan-d-b-d.vcxproj]

How can I fix this?