I've just tried with Microsoft Visual Studio Express 2017 and it seems that the project files for 2013 still works. (I haven't tried with 2019 or 2022 yet.)

I had to copy some files before running the msbuild command.

copy win32\config_mvc.h config.h
copy win32\gnulib_h\langinfo.h gnulib
copy win32\gnulib_h\fnmatch.h gnulib

Using VS2019 reported following:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\BuildTools\MSBuild\Microsoft\VC\v160\Microsoft.CppBuild.targets(439,5): error MSB8020: The build too 
ls for Visual Studio 2013 (Platform Toolset = 'v120') cannot be found. To build using the v120 build tools, please install Visual Studio 2013 build tools. 
  Alternatively, you may upgrade to the current Visual Studio tools by selecting the Project menu or right-click the solution, and then selecting "Retarge 
t solution". [C:\Users\vagrant\ctags\win32\ctags_vs2013.vcxproj]

I think the file name ctags_vs2013.* should rename to other name if it really supports VS2015 and VS2017.

Ah, this PC has both VS2013 and VS2017 installed. So, even VS2017's msbuild is used, toolset from VS2013 is used.

If <PlatformToolset>v120</PlatformToolset> lines in the .vcxproj file are changed to <PlatformToolset>v141</PlatformToolset>, it might work on the newer VS versions.

So, currently, it is v120, we don't need to mention about other versions of VS now.

As per https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/build/how-to-modify-the-target-framework-and-platform-toolset?view=msvc-170#platform-toolset

Visual Studio 2010: v100
Visual Studio 2013: v120
Visual Studio 2015: v140
Visual Studio 2017: v141
Visual Studio 2019: v142
Visual Studio 2022: v143

PlatformToolset can't be changed via msbuild options.

It seems that we need ctags_vs2013.vcxproj ctags_vs2015.vcxproj ctags_vs2017.vcxproj ctags_vs2019.vcxproj ctags_vs2022.vcxproj.

It seems that there is a way to support multiple versions of VS in one vcxporj file:
https://qiita.com/yumetodo/items/a8324efaf83c9c08d168 (Japanese)
The basic idea is to switch PlatformToolset based on VisualStudioVersion.
(This page suggests using CMake instead of this method, though.)

Yes, I think we should use cmake instead of msbuild, we do not need to maintain nmake and msbuild build script, cmake build script is much easier than msbuild build script. moden Vistual Studio already includes the cmake as well.