Visual Studio Setup

Installation and containerization of the Visual Studio family of products

VS2015 Archives - Visual Studio Setup

vswhere now searches older versions of Visual Studio

March 11, 2017 Mar 11, 2017 03/11/17
Heath Stewart
One of the top requests I kept hearing for vswhere was to also search older versions of Visual Studio. You can now do that starting with the latest release. Even if you don't have Visual Studio 2017 or newer installed - which means the query API is not even registered - you can use vswhere to find the installation root directory for Visual ...

Removing Visual Studio components left behind after an uninstall

July 17, 2015 Jul 17, 2015 07/17/15
Heath Stewart
When you install Visual Studio and related content like Windows Kits or some add-ons, most packages that comprise those bundles are reference counted to make sure they are not removed prematurely. Uninstalling Visual Studio and related content should eventually remove those packages (i.e. last one out the door turns off the light). Contrast ...

Redirect the Package Cache using registry-based policy

June 9, 2015 Jun 9, 2015 06/9/15
Heath Stewart
Visual Studio can require a lot of space on the system drive, and previous methods of redirecting the Package Cache can be tricky for some people to set up or even maintain as junctions across volumes may be removed on boot. The cache is there for good reasons and has significantly reduced the failure rate, but for people with smaller system ...

Detection keys for Visual Studio 2015

April 13, 2015 Apr 13, 2015 04/13/15
Heath Stewart
Administrators and developers who need to detect whether Visual Studio 2015 is installed can use similar registry keys as with past releases. This time around, though, we’ve made some changes to the lineup of products but the registry scheme remains the same. Most of the detection keys are found in the 32-bit registry hive – the ones you...