My question is where do the toolsets such as "Visual Studio 2019 (v142)" live?
I'm not sure whether the answer I will get now for my question would be different than if I asked it before May 2021 and the first Visual Studio 2022 release since it is a 64-bit program and so its files live under a different folder tree entirely.
If I perform a build in Visual Studio 2019 then it will be looking in a different place for this v142 toolset than if I run the same project in Visual Studio 2022.
I have found that for some reason the Visual Studio 2022 17.3.0 Preview does not generate the /JMC switch when under Win32 builds using the v142 toolset.
I would be interested to know where these things get stored so that I could compare them.
Only Visual Studio 2019 is present in VSIXInstaller, Visual Studio 2017 is missing and when I want to install the extension specifically for Visual Studio 2017 I can't do that
I believe this issue crops up due to the 'Visual Studio Extension File' not having the appropriate supported VS Version Numbers specified in the '.vsixmanifest'.
(Changing the supported Version Number range will allow support for previous or future versions of Visual Studio.)
Here is a Link to an answer of mine which covers the issue and resolution. (Which has a worked example of allowing VS 2015 where only VS 2012 was supported)
I'm trying to install regular version (not preview) of Visual Studio Community by using Visual Studio Intaller. In it, I can see list of versions that are installed and available, but all of these versions are preview. My installed versions are Visual Studio Community 2017 Preview and Visual Studio Community 2019 Preview. Versions that are available to be installed are Visual Studio Enterprise and Professional 2017 and 2019 Preview.
How can I install Visual Studio Community 2017 (or 2019) that is not preview version?
Please download the VS community 2017 installer and run this installer as administrator, then check the available version again.
I am currently using Visual Studio 2015 for programming ASP.NET Core applications. I have the following questions regarding installing Visual Studio 2017:
What is considered to be best practice and/or cleanest method?
Should I install Visual Studio 2017 beside Visual Studio 2015?
Should I first uninstall Visual Studio 2015 and all .NET Core dependencies and then install Visual Studio 2017?
Are there any tools that would ensure a clean uninstall of Visual Studio 2015?
From page Visual Studio 2017 Platform Targeting and Compatibility
Compatibility with Previous Releases Installation
You can install and use Visual Studio 2017 alongside previous versions of Visual Studio, including Visual Studio 2015, Visual Studio 2013, and Visua Studio 2012.
So yes. you can install them without any problem.
VS 2013, VS 2015, and VS 2017 all work well side-by-side. VS 2012 can be a little dodgy on Windows 10, but should also work side-by-side. In theory VS 2010 should also work side-by-side with those, but I've run into quirks in the past with them interfering with one-another.
Projects should round-trip between 2015 and 2017 generally, although there are some one-way upgrade scenarios.
Note that if you really just need the older compiler toolset for some reason, you can also install VS 2017 and select the optional component Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.140 which installs the older v140 compiler which you can still use with the VS 2017 IDE. That said, there's not a lot of reason to do this since the VS 2015 & VS 2017 C++ standard libraries are binary compatible so you can mix them in a project.
See this blog post for information on VS 2017.
It sounds like you have done some projects in 2015 already, so you will probably want to keep it.
Once you open a project in a new version, it will try to upgrade the project and then you can't go back.
However, if you have multiple versions installed at the same time, when you try to open a project, say, from Windows Explorer, it will open it with the "Visual Studio Version Checker" and will look at the project file and determine which version to open it in.
Bottom line, if you have the hard drive space, there is no reason to not install them alongside each other.
In the past, it was recommended to install them in sequential order if you are installing multiple versions, but it doesn't sound like this is an issue for you and I don't know if that is even a problem anymore as it has been several versions since I have had to deal with that.
Good luck!
Personally, I would keep both - there have been multiple times through the years where you have compatibility issues and NEED to have the prior version(s). I've also had old project that will not upgrade and I've gone back and reinstalled old VS versions.
If you have no reason to keep VS2015 in your computer I would suggest uninstalling it.
I uninstalled VS2015 after installing VS2017 and later noticing that I was still using an old taskbar shortcut to VS2015.
So I was inadvertently still using VS2015.
Maybe some special cases require keeping older versions of VS along side the new version, but for the rest of us, I say, uninstall!
VS 2015 is the last version that is supported by Installshield LE.
If you have a need for building installers in the future, it will be useful to have VS 2015
1,2,3. Visual Studio 2017 has more features over 2015 and it contains 2015's current features so you don't need 2015 alongside 2017. Just stick with 2017. And I don't think you will have any problems while opening 2013 and 2015 projects with Visual Studio 2017.
Uninstall Tool is a good tool to use. It cleanses all the leftover files and registry entries after running the original uninstallation wizard and even tells you how many files will be cleaned after the required reboot.
For people continuing to read this, I have Visual Studio Professional 2008 (For Windows Embedded 6.5), 2010, 2015, 2017 and they all work even if open at the same time.
Edit: As stated in other answers, they need to be installed from oldest version to newest.
I'm setting up a build server and I'm trying to install the minimum I can. I don't want to install all the visual studio 2013 express, How I can do that? also I'm assuming I need the vs2013 command line to support msbuild correct?
Thanks
Jp
If you don't have Visual Studio installed on your computer, you can
use Build Tools 2013 to build managed applications. The Visual Basic
and C# compilers are also included in this download. (In earlier
versions, these tools were included in the stand-alone .NET
Framework.)
Similarly, Microsoft Build Tools 2015 and 2015 Visual C++ Build Tools.