Visual Studio 2015 installer hangs during install? - visual-studio
I downloaded the full ISO for Visual Studio Ultimate CTP 6. The installation program got to about the 90% mark, gauging by the progress bar, and just stuck there. There was frequent activity from Superfetch, Anti-malware protection, and other background processes, but the progress bar was dead still. Eventually the background task activity subsided after 20 minutes, but the progress bar still wouldn't budge.
CHEAP TRICK: Open a notepad window and position the left edge of it so it perfectly marks the current position of the progress bar. If it the progress bar doesn't move past the left edge of the notepad window in about an hour, it's probably stuck.
This was a case of one of the sub-installers getting stuck during the install and never completing. Unfortunately when this happens, it looks like the master installer never times out the operation. The trick is to open up the Task Manager in detail mode, and look for a sub-installer process that is showing 0% CPU usage and 0% disk usage, indicating it has died. Then just kill that process and the master installation will resume. In my case, the name of the sub-installer was SecondaryInstaller.exe and according to the installation log it happened while it was trying to install some Android SDK components for the cross platform development modules. It had frozen permanently. I killed it and the master installer completed. When I ran Visual Studio it was fine, although I'm guessing I'll have to do some digging on the Android components install problem.
I temporarily disabled my antivirus (AVG) and restarted the install. That fixed it.
The current version of AVG Free antivirus is incompatible with Microsoft Visual Studio 2015.
It does not allow Visual Studio to be installed on the computer. It gets stuck at "Creating restore point". Visual Studio installs perfectly when AVG is turned off.
Any code compiled in "Release" mode targeting x86 platform/environment (in project properties) does not compile. It compiles successfully when AVG is turned off.
I posted the issues in AVG support forum but no one responded.
Same thing happened to me, and I also tried to terminate secondary process from task manager. Do not do that. It is not a solution, but rather a hack which may cause issues later. In my case, I was not even able to uninstall Visual Studio. I tried both web installation and ISO, same issue.
Here is how it worked finally. I restored my Windows 7 to earliest restore point as possible, when there was nothing installed, so I was sure that there would be no conflicts between the different tools (Java, Android API, etc.)
I started the installation of Visual Studio 2015 Community Release Candidate at 10 p.m. At 7 a.m., it was working on Android API 19-21. A hour later, it was finally preparing Visual Studio.
This means that all you need to do is to actually wait 8 to 9 hours. Don't terminate the secondary installer at risk of breaking your Visual Studio; just wait.
During the installation if you think it has hung (notably during the "Android SDK Setup"), browse to your %temp% directory and order by "Date modified" (descending), there should be a bunch of log files created by the installer.
The one for the "Android SDK Setup" will be named "AndroidSDK_SI.log" (or similar).
Open the file and got to the end of it (Ctrl+End), this should indicate the progress of the current file that is being downloaded.
i.e: "(80%, 349 KiB/s, 99 seconds left)"
Reopening the file, again going to the end, you should see further indication that the download has progressed (or you could just track the modified timestamp of the file [in minutes]).
i.e: "(99%, 351 KiB/s, 1 seconds left)"
Unfortunately, the installer doesn't indicate this progress (it's running in a separate "Java.exe" process, used by the Android SDK).
This seems like a rather long-winded way to check what's happening but does give an indication that the installer hasn't hung and is doing something, albeit very slowly.
I had the same problem when I tried to install VS 2015 RC from ISO. It got stuck during Android SDK Setup (API Level 19 & 21, System Images). For me the problem was metered Wi-Fi connection. The installer didn't download necessary files.
Turning off the Internet connection resolved the problem. When installation finished, it said that some components were not installed and it will try to download and install them later.
Check if your Windows has pending updates. After the restart, installation worked as expected.
Alright so after hours of googling and failed attempts at solving this including many of the suggestions above, I found a solution I tried on a whim and worked for me.
Attempt to install the program, then, when it gets "stuck", cancel it, but don't uninstall.
Then, go to the control panel, go to programs, go and attempt to uninstall it, select "Repair" instead of Uninstall.
"Repairing" Visual Studio appears to have completely worked and was very quick, under 5 minutes and everything seems to work fine.
This issue is becoming very now, specially for users installing visual studio on windows 10 platform. What Microsoft suggests is disable your anti virus and anti malware programs and always run setup with admin permission.
But in my case I have to do lot more things to get rid of this issue:
1. Disabled AVG realtime protaction
2. Disabled AVG from task manager
3. Remove all the files and folders from system temp folder. (You can open it by typing %temp% and hit enter in run prompt)
4. Run setup again as admin
Here is a complete list of incidents that I faced in this issue (visual studio 2015 installation got stuck)
And how I resolved it
I got stuck during Android SDK Setup (API Level 19 and 21) Turning OFF and ON the Internet connection resolved the issue and the installation completed successfully.
My VS 2015 install hung after hours of downloading. The VS installer window said it was still proceeding, but Windows Resource Monitor indicated there had been no networ, disk, or CPU usage by the vs_community.exe process tree for dozens of minutes. Windows Process Explorer revealed wusa.exe at the bottom of this tree (wusa is Windows Update Standalone Installer). Tempted to kill wusa.exe, I instead heeded the warnings in other answers to this question.
After studying other answers here (strongly recommended), I made an educated guess and initiated a restart of my Windows 7 Pro. The restart hung because vs_community.exe would not exit. I therefore selected Cancel on Windows' restart popup.
Windows returned to my user session, and now the VS 2015 install came to life(!) Process Explorer revealed wusa.exe no longer present. I therefore suspect that was the roadblock, but my conscience is clean (I didn't kill wusa.exe, Windows did!)
After awhile the installer displayed the following:
When I clicked Restart Now, Windows restarted to a "Configuring Windows" screen, and completed my VS install.
This solution is a safe mix of killing the sub tasks answer and the waiting answer:
when the installer gets stuck, simply launch the task manager and kill the process
if you attempt to run the app again, it will say that the app installation is not complete
run the installer again, and click on repair
installs fine
When stuck on Visual Studio Preparation:
I killed vs_enterprise.exe with higher PID, Visual Studio threw an error, that "pipe is being closed". Restarted PC & Logged in. Visual Studio started automatically and has completed within 1 minute.
A better approach to find whether one of the subinstallers is blocked is to monitor its Network and Disk I/O activity. Process Explorer from Sysinternals does an excellent job. Android SDK Setup downloads large amounts of data (more than 1GB) and the CPU sits idle waiting for an I/O-bound operation to be completed. Under no circumstances you should attempt to kill any process, or you might risk corrupting your installation of Visual Studio. In the worst case scenario, cancelling and rerunning the setup should help.
Mine froze on the Diagnostic Tools for 3 hours. I tried disabling my firewall and turning off internet among many other attempts to resolve this. In the end the following actions allowed the installer to complete and VS2015 Community edition to launch.
I then opened the latest log file in the %temp% folder, and navigated
to the end of the file.
In the last few log lines there was an entry: "MSI (s) (DC:4C)
[16:28:36:577]: Created Custom Action Server with PID xxxx"
I ended the process with the same PID, and then the installer
continued. I had to do it roughly 3 times in total and then the
installer completed successfully.
All seems to be working OK so far (fingers crossed!!)
For Windows10:
1) Kill VS2015 Process if hung
2) Disable Windows Defender
3) Open VS2015 as Administrator
4) Enable Windows Defender
5) Initial VS2015 startup is complete
I have similar problems, my savior became Windows Safe Mode
STEPS:
Restart Windows in Safe Mode (*run msconfig -> boot -> boot options -> check safe boot -> mode Network)
In Safe Mode:
Enable Windows Installer:
REG ADD "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SafeBoot\Network\MSIServer" /VE /T REG_SZ /F /D "Service"
Start Windows Installer service:
net start msiserver
Run Visual Studio Updater / Installer
Restart in normal mode (run msconfig -> boot -> boot options -> uncheck safe boot)
I had an issue with the Visual Studio Update 3 installer getting stuck on the "Features" tab at ther very start of installation...it would show only "Update 2 (installed)" and nothing else, with no way to proceed.
After trying some of the other more complex advice here, it turned out, to my surprise, that all I needed to do was use "Run as Administrator" when kicking off the installer. I was under the impression MSI generally runs with Admin privileges (under the Trusted Installer service) but I suppose the VS bootstrapper in this case does not.
I had the same issue. It would hang immediately, as soon as it said "Applying Microsoft Visual Studio 2015." There was only a small sliver in the progress bar. I even let the install run overnight. There was no disk activity or CPU usage from the installer.
What finally worked was to kill the process in Task Manager and restart the computer. As soon as I rebooted, the installer opened up automatically and completed successfully.
In my case the Graphics Tools Windows feature installation was hanging forever.
I've installed the Optional Windows Feature manually and restarted the setup of VS 2015.
I just installed VS 2015 Enterprise on Windows Server 2012 R2. The install was fast until it reached Update 1 which is past the 90% mark on the progress indicator. At that point, it took about 2 hours to complete. Be patient before you try anything more radical.
Mine got stuck applying the .NET 4.6.1 blah... Turning off the internet and disabling Microsoft Security Essentials Real-time protection got things moving again.
Well, I cant find any SecondaryInstaller.exe to stop in task manager and even I dont have any AV rather then Windows Defender so I found something else..
I stopped windows Update from elevated cmd by writing command net stop muauserv and it worked for me...
The update will Retry again for KB2664825 so run the code again in cmd..(because the service starts automatically)
Keep trying and its done for me...!!
I had the same problem on a different context. After trying to repair, uninstall, and reinstall with no solution, I decided to wipe out all Visual Studio remnant by using TotalUninstaller by follower the steps by steps on the link below:
https://github.com/Microsoft/VisualStudioUninstaller/releases
Once everything is removed, I was able to successfully install the software.
Be aware that TotalUninstaller will remove everything related to Visual Studio 2013 to 2015. Earlier version will still be preserved.
I added this solution in case someone has the exact same problem.
I've got same problem and unfortunately the accepted answer which suggests killing SecondaryInstaller.exe messed up installing the optional items. What I've done is basically opening the task manager and locate SecondaryInstaller.exe and right click and click on Open file location. Then run SecondaryInstaller.exe as an administrator.
In my case UAC was disabled (the infamous regedit trick) and so the installer clearly could not handle it.
You could revert back to UAC for the installer, or simply try launching it as admin, it worked for me.
If you are using windows 10, "Windows defender" might be the reason for blocking. mine is hang while installing "Java SE development"
To disable windows defender during the installation phase:
Open Windows Defender by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button. In the search box, type Defender, and then, in the list of results, click Windows Defender.
Click Settings, and turn off Real-time protection.
I have experienced similar problems with Visual Studio 2015 Update 3.
In my case core issue was corrupted windows installer cache (C:\Windows\Installer)
Here is the line from msi installer log:
MSI (s) (4C:64) [10:40:10:059]: Warning: Local cached package 'C:\WINDOWS\Installer\3442502.msi' is missing.
You should check installation logs if installation cache is corrupted same way.
If it is you should pray for sfc utility to recover system integrity or you would reinstall windows from scratch as corrupted windows installer cache is a complete disaster and a reason to perform clear windows installation immediately.
I had a similar problem. My solution was to switch off the antivirus software (Avast), download the .iso file, mount it (double click in the Windows Explorer on the .iso file), and then run it from the PowerShell with admin rights with the following switches:
.\vs_community.exe /NoWeb /NoRefresh
This way you don't have to go offline or remove your existing installation.
For me it helped to stop the installation service forcefully using task manager. If Visual Studio was installed in Features & Programs then uninstall it, restart computer and try to install it again.
When starting the installation make sure to be have reliable internet connection
Related
When I download an extension for Visual Studio 2019, it doesn't get installed on restart
When I download an extension within Visual Studio 2019 IDE, it downloads successfully and gives a message "changes will be scheduled and that the installs will begin when I close all windows". If I close all the open windows in IDE, nothing happens. Also after a restart, I do not see the extension installed.
changes will be scheduled and that the installs will begin when I close all windows To close all windows, try going File menu => Exit to close VS instead of clicking the X button. Here're some other workarounds I found: 1.Download the extension from VS Marketplace and double-click the xx.vsix file to start installing manually. 2.If the popup doesn't show, find the xx.vsix in %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Temp folder, run it there to install. See this. Of course these are workarounds, however I can't reproduce same issue in my machine. So I guess maybe something is broken in VS or one unknown process interrupts the installation. I suggest we can make sure we're in Admin permission, run a VS repair(or Update VS to latest 16.3.6), and check if one process like cmd(found one similar issue whose cause is about cmd.exe) by task manager... Hope all above helps if someone meets similar issue :)
Visual Studio 2017 Install Stuck at Microsoft.VisualStudio.AspNet45.Feature
When installing Visual Studio 2017 Professional 15.9.0 the installation hangs at 97% while installing Microsoft.VisualStudio.AspNet45.Feature. I'm posting this only because it seems to be a problem that is almost two years and is still an issue. There are several posts like this one: https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/content/problem/24739/installation-stuck-at-applying-microsoftvisualstud.html#reply-form Most indicate the issue has been fixed in later versions, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I let the process run over night and it never went anywhere.
There was a process name DISM.exe in task manager. I killed it and it work.
If you encounter the issue of your Visual Studio installer becoming stuck while installing ASP.Net45.Feature, you need to do the following: [Alt + Ctrl + Del] to open Task Manager. Locate a process named "Dism Image Servicing Utility". View the "Dism Image Servicing Utility" Properties -> Details tab. Confirm that the Original Filename is "DISM.EXE" in the Details tab. Close Properties and End Task. (Note: If you have two of these processes in the Task Manager, just kill the bottom-most one. You can leave the second one running since for some Microsoft reason, killing just one does the trick). Enjoy the completion of your Visual Studio installation. Once the process is killed, the install continues immediately.
In my case i found that a "Service Host: Local System" process was taking up 20% cpu and 20% disk. Nested in that was Windows Update, and Update Orchestrator Service.... I killed both of those and the installation completed. Upon rebooting, my machine sat for almost an hour on the "Getting Windows Ready (please do not turn off your computer)" update screen, but it did eventually finish.
Visual studio 2017 installer won't run after extracting
visual studio 2017 community.exe won't run after extracting to the temp. OS: windows 10 x64bit Setup : community version in the temp folder bootstrapper log says, Beginning of the log. Start Time: 3/26/2017 1:14:54 AM VisualStudio Bootstrapper:3/26/2017 1:14:54 AM: Current Optin root path does not exists VisualStudio Bootstrapper:3/26/2017 1:14:55 AM: Commandline arguments = and the dd_vs_community_decompression_log says [3/26/2017, 11:17:47] === Logging started: 2017/03/26 11:17:47 === [3/26/2017, 11:17:47] Executable: C:\Users\Sameera\Downloads\Programs\vs_community.exe v15.0.26228.0 [3/26/2017, 11:17:47] --- logging level: standard --- [3/26/2017, 11:17:47] Directory 'C:\Users\Sameera\AppData\Local\Temp\4ceac4b7b9cd9fdf2489526c66\' has been selected for file extraction [3/26/2017, 11:17:48] Extracting files to: C:\Users\Sameera\AppData\Local\Temp\4ceac4b7b9cd9fdf2489526c66\ [3/26/2017, 11:17:48] Extraction took 360 milliseconds [3/26/2017, 11:17:48] Executing extracted package: 'vs_bootstrapper_d15\vs_setup_bootstrapper.exe ' with commandline ' ' [3/26/2017, 11:18:10] The entire Box execution exiting with result code: 0x0 [3/26/2017, 11:18:10] Launched extracted application exiting with result code: 0xc000000d [3/26/2017, 11:18:10] === Logging stopped: 2017/03/26 11:18:10 === can't find proper solution..
I had this problem too. SHClark's answer didn't work for me. I figured out myself what was causing the problem on my computer: Mirekusoft Install Monitor. I disabled both its services and that solved the problem. (I guess that's not an extremely likely program for someone to have running, but it could be a problem common to install monitors in general?) I also heard from someone on the Visual Studio Community forum that RivaTunerStatistics (used for gaming) can cause this problem too.
One of my co-workers encountered the same problem. We spent 4 hours searching for solutions, uninstalling VS and other software that we thought might be the culprit. In the end, THIS LINK helped us figure it out. The problem is somehow explained there and is linked to NODE_OPTIONS variable. If you have that variable set, remove it then restart your computer. This solved his problem. Configuration: Widows 10, Visual Studio 2017 Enterprise. I hope this helps you
I was able to resolve my problem after 4 days of troubleshooting with Microsoft support. I'm developing on a Dell laptop and the support technician believes one of the Dell services was causing issues with the winmgmt service. Below is a command that failed to run. Then after making sure we had an OS restore point saved, we issued the /resetRepository command. After that, the VS 2017 Pro installer was able to execute without error. EDIT: Adding the exact steps and code sample below: Step 1: Create a Windows system restore point. Step 2: From the command prompt with administrative rights or elevated privileges, execute the following command: net stop winmgmt Step 3: Open a Windows Explorer and locate the path to C:\windows\system32\WBEM\ folder and rename the Repository folder to something else like RepositoryOLD (right click and choose 'Rename Folder'). Step 4: restart the computer Step 5: From the command prompt with administrative rights or elevated privileges, execute the following command: net stop winmgmt C:\>net stop winmgmt The Windows Management Instrumentation service is stopping. The Windows Management Instrumentation service could not be stopped. Step 6: From the command prompt with administrative rights or elevated privileges, execute the following command: winmgmt /resetRepository C:\>winmgmt /resetRepository WMI repository has been reset Step 7: restart the computer. Hope this helps anyone with a similar Visual Studio 2017 installer issue.
Copy vs_community.exe to a USB and run. It will work.
I had the same (or similar) problem. I couldn't update VS2017, either from within the program or by trying to run the installer. The web page at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/install/troubleshooting-installation-issues had instructions that resolved the problem. For me, deleting the 'Installer' directory and then retrying the installation resolved the problem.
Try deleting this folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\. Restart the install.
Note for others with installer problems for Visual Studio 2017/2019/vNext Before messing with your system FIRST TRY CLOSING EVERY OTHER PROGRAM. Sounds silly, i know! But I almost missed inhahe's answer mentioning that RivaTuner could cause problems. Closing that caused it to start working instantly. TL;DR: Close all other programs like you always ignore in installation instructions :)
Try to stop MSI AfterBurner. Worked for me.
It's the same answer as in question visual studio 2017 install break : it not get start just in case you don't observe the other question. I had the same Problem on two different Pc's (both win10) and the only thing that worked for me, was reinstalling Windows's and rerun the visual studio installer. I know, that's not a good, fast or easy solution, but it works.
I have been having this issue all day and MS support were not able to help. To solve my issue, I updated my video driver to the latest version (I was intentionally using an old driver as the new versions don't support my monitor resolution). The visual studio installer must use a GUI tech not supported by my older card and just fails before the installer GUI loads. The same issue happened with the older, offline installers for older versions such as VS2013.
I had the same issue, the fix is: go to reigonal settings from control panel, then on the administrative tab select (or if selected reselect) current language for non-unicode programs. than try again.
I had the same problem. Here is my solution: right click vs installer, extract with winrar. go to extracted folder. run: vs_setup_bootstrapper.exe This worked for me :)
I had the same problem and the problem was my user name containing both space and a non ascii character (Olcay Ertaş). I have moved the installer to my root folder and it worked. This is probably the reason why #oğuzhan-türk's solution is also working.
I had the same problem also (with a Dell labtop) and SHClark's didn't work for me. Here is what I did: I used the command line to create a local cache of the files you need to complete an offline install [ctrl] [shift] [enter] for the cmd prompt to run as admin 1) typed d:\vs_community.exe --layout h:\vs2017layout --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.NativeDesktop --includeRecommended --lang en-US once it was done downloading to h:\vs2017layout, 2) opened h:\vs2017layout\vs_setup.exe finally got it to open after extracting but ran into this error: The name of the file cannot be resolved by the system so I created a link for the c:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Visual Studio folder using the following command at windows cmd promt: mklink /D "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\VisualStudio" "g:\ProgramData\Microsoft\VisualStudio" It worked after that. Not sure if the second error was related to the first. Hope this helps.
If you have Win8 you needed to update your system to 8.1 ver. and restart your computer.
I had this problem. Turned out there was an old, failed installation on the drive. I had to go to Control Panel->Add/Remove Programs and remove Visual Studio Install Tool. After that the installer worked fine.
Faced the same problem with Visual Studio 2019, but I think version doesn't matter here. This thread helped me: https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/content/problem/326811/vs-community-installer-not-running-working.html. The reason was in somehow corrupted .NET files. Actions applied: deleted all apps with "Microsoft .NET" in name using https://support.microsoft.com/ru-ru/help/17588/windows-fix-problems-that-block-programs-being-installed-or-removed downloaded and installed latest version of .NET Framework Runtime (not .NET Core Runtime) from https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download, in my case it was version 4.8 restarted PC This helped me.
Nothing worked for me here however i was able to find out that there was an error with the main.js file that he couldn't find the temp folder. so i looked up the environment variables and indeed for my current user TEMP was not set resp. empty. i copied the default temp value(%SystemRoot%\TEMP) for all users to my current user TEMP variable and afterwards everything worked
I have lost a lot of time to solve it. By me, it was an error in machine.config, which I made 2 weeks ago. I have found it only because I have tried to uninstall the JetBrains too. And there was an error too , but with a log, where I could see it.
After search during days and didn't work... I tried uninstall all .NET frameworks and it works!
I have tried all the answers provided so far and none of them worked for me. What I did after 2 days of searching for issues online and google-ing, as I have started Windows Event Viewer and googled the error that was logged in the Event Viewer at the time of Bootstrapper crash. The problem was somewhat similar to #inhanes problem above. It turned out to be the Fresco Logic Driver installation that was causing the issue. I have deleted the driver (add or remove programs -> uninstall) and the damn thing worked. By the way, this driver is written for USB3.0->HDMI converter. Anyway, guys and girls: Event Viewer which is a built-in Windows logger can be helpful. :) Now I can just leave in peace and develop my stuff.
Visual Studio 2013 Update 5 Takes forever to install/uninstall
I am installing Visual Studio 2013 Update 5 on windows 7. It got stuck for hours at a step. (I forgot at which step.) I then restarted and continued to install again. It got successfully installed but visual studio was giving weird errors while building the projects. So I ran repair on the installation. It got stuck again while applying "Windows Phone 8.1 SDK". There was no progress even when I left it to run overnight. Now I am trying to uninstall update 5. But it has again stuck while applying "Windows Phone 8.1 SDK". Any thoughts? Thanks.
Though I had fast internet, it was taking so long. I stopped the installation and tried again. It completed after few hours.
Had the same problem. After blocking the antivir activity, the speed of uninstalling raised many times. It is still slow, yes, but I see as the progress bar moves. The whole uninstall takes about 40 min. Another feature I used is not uninstalling from Control Panel, but from command line, with /force key cd c:\ dir /s vs_community.exe Thus you find all folders containing vs_community.exe. Choose one from c:\ProgramData. cd to it. Launch vs_community.exe /force /uninstall It helps to overcome some possible blocking situations. If the uninstalling process demands some additional files and their address by a popup message, download them and provide the downloads folder to the uninstall wizard. Sometimes it won't help, but then you can simply ignore it by cancelling the message. After uninstalling you can find these problem pieces of SW by name in the Control Panel and uninstall them separately. This method helps even if you have several different installations of Visual Studio, with some of them broken.
Visual Studio Express 2013 for windows with update 2 installation Taking Too much time in "Configuring Your System"
visual studio express 2013 for web is already installed on my windows 8.1 laptop. Now i am trying to install visual studio express 2013 for widows with update 2. It works fine until last step , but in last step "Configuring Your System, this may take a white" . it just goes like infinite loop. it just showing installing and progress it has takes more than 3 hours and still same progress. after i have decided to cancel the setup, but same problem in cancelling , just goes on and on. after that i have killed the process from task manager. and then restarted the Laptop. but after Restart the setup is started from where it left. and still the same issue. Please Someone help. either i want to cancel the setup, or to install successful. but nothing works its just goes like infinite loop. any idea how can i do this?
I had the same problem today trying to install Visual Studio 2013 Update 3 from the 6.9 GB iso file I downloaded from MSDN. A few things: 1) First I stopped then disabled the Windows Search process since it seemed to be in a fight for the disk during the install. Note, disabling the service is not enough since something keeps turning back on. You have to right click on the service entry in the Task Manager Services tab and then choose Open Services option since trying to end the task directly from the tab will fail. From the Open Services option you can stop the Windows Search service and then change it's run status to disabled. Don't forget to turn it back on later when you're done with the install. 2) I looked in my Task List and I noticed there were some entries for the installer for Visual Studio 2013 RC 2. I had uninstalled that version because the design editor was crashing continuously. The uninstall was only partially successful. I wonder if it got launched in an attempt to clean up the previous uninstall. In either case, I ended the task for RC 2. 3) I also saw entries for the Windows Phone 8.1 emulator installers. I ended those tasks too. The instant I did steps #2 and #3 the main Visual Studio installer perked up and said Setup Completed. My guess is that either the RC 2 installer or the Windows Phone 8.1 emulator installer got stuck and the main installer was waiting for it to return. I then clicked LAUNCH and Visual Studio 2013 Update 3 started properly. The good news is that the update worked fine. The moral of the story is if you get the problem reported by the original poster, check for stuck sub-installers in your task list and get rid of them, but do not stop the main installer.
I've got similar issue. I solve it by going to process manager and killing all visual studio application process (i.e. emulator, visual studio 32b, visual studio for web...) without main process of instalation. After 5 minutes installation end.
I had the same problem with Visual Studio 2014 Update 3 hanging for hours at the very end of the install. The very second I ended the process described by Robert Oscler at (3) above "I also saw entries for the Windows Phone 8.1 emulator installers. I ended those tasks too." the install finished and I was ready to launch. This really worked thanks. If your not familiar with Task Manager here's what to do. To do it you press CTRL ALT DELETE together and pick Task Manager. If there is nothing showing press More Details bottom right. On the processes page scroll down until you see an entry that has Windows Phone 8.1 emulator (or similar) as a description. Click on any of these and just press the button that says end task on the bottom right. You need to be careful what processes that you end in general but it's fine to end Windows Phone 8.1 emulator in this case. Hope this fixes the problem for you and thanks again to Robert
I had Visual Studio 2013 Ultimate on my laptop and downloaded and installed VS 2013 with Update 2 on the same machine. I got to that last step "Configuring Your System, this may take a while" and it took like forever. About 2 hours for me. My take is that you wait for it to complete, maybe leave it finishing up overnight. Another suggestion, assuming you installed "over" the original VS 2013 is to first uninstall it and the install VS 2013 with Update 2.