Microsoft ends Visual C++ Redistributable Chaos

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Programs designed with Visual Studio may require a specific version of the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable to run. The requirement resulted in the installation of a large number of Visual C++ Redistributable packages on Windows PCs.

It is not uncommon to see multiple Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributables on a system that were installed by software programs, through updates, e.g. security updates, or manually by the system administrator.

Redistributables are stored in a central location so that any program installed on the system may access the files if required. You can check out our detailed guide on Visual C++ Redistributables here for additional details.

Microsoft changed the system significantly with the release of the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015, 2017 and 2019. A baseline image is provided for these redistributable packages so that it is no longer necessary to install different versions separately on target systems.

In other words: if the Visual C++ 2019 redistributable is installed on a system, it is no longer necessary to install the Visual C++ 2015 or 2017 redistributable packages as these are supported automatically as well.

Microsoft provides the following example on the "The latest supported Visual C++ downloads" support page.

For example, installing the Visual C++ 2019 redistributable will affect programs built with Visual C++ 2015 and 2017 also. However, installing the Visual C++ 2015 redistributable will not replace the newer versions of the files installed by the Visual C++ 2017 and 2019 redistributables.

This is different from all previous Visual C++ versions, as they each had their own distinct runtime files, not shared with other versions.

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