Get list of installed visual studio versions in installshield 2015 - visual-studio

Im creating an msi project, where I want msi to fetch the installed Visual Studio version(2010/2012/2013/2015) during installation in progress. I want that data to bind a custom installation dialog so that user can select on which Visual Studio they would like to proceed the installation.

You would need to use Custom Actions to detect what versions/editions of Visual Studio installed on the users computer. You would need to check certain registry keys as described in this article: HOWTO: Detect installed Visual Studio editions, packages or service packs. After your CA detected the versions you may populate the list in the dialog for user to choose.

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What do I need to do to program an MFC/STL program in Visual Studio?

I've installed Visual Studio on my private PC, the version is "Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2019", version 16.1.6.
In order to prepare a job interview, I'd like to do some basic MFC/AFX programming, starting by the basic CMapStringToString example from the Microsoft website.
This, however, seems not to work, as I don't have access to the mentioned file afxcoll.h. Indeed: there is no file, called afx*.h on my PC.
Is this a limitation of my free downloaded Visual Studio installation, or is there any add-in, add-on, extension or whatever I can install in order to work with CMapStringToString objects?
Thanks in advance
You need to explicitly install MFC support in Visual Studio - which you can do on Community editions:
Open Visual Studio Installer from your Start Menu
Click the Modify button
Select the Individual Components tab
Scroll down to SDKs, Libraries and frameworks
Check the various MFC/ATL options for various platforms

Tutorials on Microsoft Visual Studio 2019

I downloaded Visual Studio installer from Microsoft site and I have use the downloadball, then install feature to installed the ASP.NET features.
My question is that, where did the setup files stores to? I just want to know if possible I format my PC in order to install it without re downloading the files again.
Thanks.
It depends what you choose during the installation.
Usually, the packages are put in drive_letter:\ProgramData\Microsoft\VisualStudio\Packages.
That is true, only if you check during the installation 'Keep download cache', see the image below.
See more on Use command-line parameters to install Visual Studio
and Select the installation locations in Visual Studio

Create Setup/MSI installer in Visual Studio 2017

I have written an outlook add-in VSTO in Visual Studio Pro 2017 (VB.NET). I have published it which creates a setup.exe which is OK but I would like to create a proper installer that copies the files locally and can be run silently etc.
How do I go about doing this? When I go to create new project there is no installer project option.
You need to install this extension to Visual Studio 2017/2019 in order to get access to the Installer Projects.
According to the page:
This extension provides the same functionality that currently exists in Visual Studio 2015 for Visual Studio Installer projects. To use this extension, you can either open the Extensions and Updates dialog, select the online node, and search for "Visual Studio Installer Projects Extension," or you can download directly from this page.
Once you have finished installing the extension and restarted Visual Studio, you will be able to open existing Visual Studio Installer projects, or create new ones.
Other answers posted here for this question did not work for me using the latest Visual Studio 2017 Enterprise edition (as of 2018-09-18).
Instead, I used this method:
Close all but one instance of Visual Studio.
In the running instance, access the menu Tools->Extensions and Updates.
In that dialog, choose Online->Visual Studio Marketplace->Tools->Setup & Deployment.
From the list that appears, select Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 Installer Projects.
Once installed, close and restart Visual Studio. Go to File->New Project and search for the word Installer. You'll know you have the correct templates installed if you see a list that looks something like this:

How to update Visual Studio 2015?

I recently installed Microsoft Visual Studio community verion 2015 on my computer for educational purposes. However while installation I conservatively chose not to install the source files for C/C++. Is there any way to rectify this? There doesn't seem to be any update menu in Visual Studio where I can do this.
You can have Visual Studio check for any updates itself by going to Tools > Extensions & Updates > Updates > Product Updates.
You can install any of the custom components (Visual C++, Visual F#, others) later if you don’t select them during the initial setup, there have some methods to modify VS to select the custom components to update and you can have a look at the following:
Go to Control Panel—Programs and Features, right click the Visual Studio Community 2015 with updates and Change, it popups the VS installer windows and click Modify button, then you can find the option ‘Visual C++’ under Programming Languages and check it, click ‘Next’ button to install it like the following screenshot.
If you still store the installer file of the Visual Studio Community 2015 with update 3 on your computer, right click it and run it as administrator, click Modify button and you can find the same installer windows as the above, check the option ‘Visual C++’ to install it.

Switch Visual Studio 2010 License keys

I have used one license key and want to switch my configuration to use another key.
I tried to launched the uninstall wizard from "Add/Remove Programs" in the Windows Control Panel. When I reinstalled, the license still work.
How can I modify my Visual Studio 2010 installation to use another key, and possibly without uninstalling and reinstalling?
Sorry for not clarifying it at the beginning. Actually, a valid key is not available to me for now. Is there a way to remove the original license completely and use VS as a trial version for days.
Change the serial number after Visual Studio 2010 installation
Go to Control Panel -> Programs and Features, locate and highlight Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate/Premium/Professional installation, and click on Uninstall/Change button.
Upgrade Visual Studio 2010 Product Key for Activation
A Visual Studio setup maintenance screen should be shown. After clicking Next button, an option to enter a valid serial number to upgrade product license is available.
Enter the upgrade key accordingly, and click on Activate button. No re-installation required.
There is a way to edit the product key in a file called Setup.SDB. It should be located in
\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional - ENU\Setup.SDB
Edit this file in a notepad and search for Product key. You can then update the product key.
I actually repaired the installation after this change just to make sure everything was working. This was tested on VS2008 and VS2010

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