TypeError: Cannot read property 'thisCompilation' of undefined

Follow these steps one by one  to resolve the error on windows/linux machine

npm i -g @angular/cli@latest

rm -rf node_modules / rd /s /q node_modules 

npm cache clear --force

npm cache verify

npm install

npm uninstall webpack

npm install --save-dev --save-exact @angular/cli@latest

You might get below error also 

webpack/lib/node/NodeTemplatePlugin'


Solution 

npm remove webpack -g

npm i webpack --save-dev