Microsoft Web Deploy is not correctly installed on this machine(v3 or higher is recommended)

i'm trying to publish an asp.NET web api in .NET 4.5 to a windows server 2016 from Visual studio 2017 for the first time.

i'm following this microsoft tutorial and managed to get to the last part(where you actually press "publish" in VS2017).

Then this pops up after entering credentials for the windows server and it makes no sense(at least i think). "microsoft web deploy is not correctly installed on this machine. V3 or higher is recommended".

Even though i can clearly see that web deploy is installed on my windows server 2016.

I have also installed the recommended server configuration for web hosting providers, and web deploy 3.6 shows up in programs and features.

I've tried reinstalling, i've tried only having web deploy 3.5, i've tried with recommended server configuration and without, i've tried installing more windows features that might have anything to do with web hosting.

I don't know where to go from there, except maybe ditching web deploy and choosing another route.

Any inspiration is appreciated.