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Command-line parameter examples for Visual Studio installation

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To illustrate how to use command-line parameters to install Visual Studio, here are several examples that you can customize to match your needs.

In each example, vs_enterprise.exe, vs_professional.exe, and vs_community.exe represent the respective edition of the Visual Studio bootstrapper, which is the small (~ 1MB) file that initiates the download process. If you're using a different edition, substitute the appropriate bootstrapper name.

All commands require administrative elevation, and a User Account Control prompt will be displayed if the process isn't started from an elevated prompt.

You can use the ^ character at the end of a command line to concatenate multiple lines into a single command. Alternatively, you can place these lines together onto a single row. In PowerShell, the equivalent is the backtick (`) character.

For lists of the workloads and components that you can install by using the command line, see the Visual Studio workload and component IDs page.

Install using --installPath alongside the bootstrapper

  • Install a minimal instance of Visual Studio, with no interactive prompts, but progress displayed:

    vs_enterprise.exe --installPath C:\minVS ^
--add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.CoreEditor ^
--passive --norestart

  • Install a desktop instance of Visual Studio silently, with the French language pack, returning only when the product is installed.

    vs_enterprise.exe --installPath C:\desktopVS ^
--addProductLang fr-FR ^
--add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.ManagedDesktop ^
--includeRecommended --quiet --wait

Update

  • Update a Visual Studio instance via the command line with progress displayed and no interactive prompts. You can run these series of commands in two steps by using a bootstrapper found on either the client or in a layout. The first command updates the installer on the client, and the second command updates the Visual Studio product. You need to run these commands in an elevated command prompt, because updating the installer requires administrator permissions. The following example simulates updating a client using an evergreen bootstrapper in the layout.

    \\layoutserver\share\path\vs_enterprise.exe --update --quiet --wait
\\layoutserver\share\path\vs_enterprise.exe update --wait --passive --norestart --installPath "C:\installPathVS"

Alternatively, you can also update your Visual Studio instance in one step by using the installer on the client. Standard users, if they've been granted appropriate permissions, can programmatically execute the update command using the installer, but they aren't allowed to use the --passive or --quiet switch. Note that you can't initiate the installer programmatically from the same directory that the installer resides in.

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer\setup.exe" update --passive --norestart --installPath "C:\installPathVS"

Using --wait

  • Use --wait in batch files or scripts to wait for the initial command to complete before the next command is executed. For batch files, an %ERRORLEVEL% environment variable contains the return value of the command, as documented in the Use command-line parameters to install Visual Studio page. Some command utilities require other parameters to wait for completion and to get the installer's return value.

The --wait parameter is only supported by the bootstrapper.

start /wait vs_professional.exe --installPath "C:\VS" --passive --wait > nul
echo %errorlevel%

The following command is an example of using --wait with the PowerShell script command Start-Process:

$process = Start-Process -FilePath vs_enterprise.exe -ArgumentList "--installPath", "C:\VS", "--passive", "--wait" -Wait -PassThru
Write-Output $process.ExitCode

or

 $startInfo = New-Object System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo
 $startInfo.FileName = "vs_enterprise.exe"
 $startInfo.Arguments = "--all --quiet --wait"
 $process = New-Object System.Diagnostics.Process
 $process.StartInfo = $startInfo
 $process.Start()
 $process.WaitForExit()
  • The first --wait is used by the Visual Studio bootstrapper, and the second -Wait is used by 'Start-Process' to wait for completion. The -PassThru parameter is used by Start-Process to use the installer's exit code for its return value.

Using --layout to create a network layout or a local cache

  • Create a layout that includes only the Visual Studio core editor (the most minimal Visual Studio configuration) and the English language pack. More layout creation examples can be found on the Create a network installation of Visual Studio page.

    vs_professional.exe --layout "C:\VS" ^
--lang en-US ^
--add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.CoreEditor ^

Using --all to acquire the entire product

  • Start an interactive installation of all workloads and components that are available in the Visual Studio Enterprise edition:

    vs_enterprise.exe --all

Using --includeRecommended

  • Install a second instance of Visual Studio Professional using a nickname on a machine with Visual Studio Community edition already installed, with support for Node.js development:

    vs_professional.exe --installPath C:\VSforNode ^
--add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.Node --includeRecommended --nickname VSforNode

Using --channelURI

Using the latest installer, it's possible to configure where Visual Studio looks for updates. The --channelUri is otherwise known as the update channel or the source location of updates. The following table gives example values for channelId and channelUri and what they mean.

Channel Name --channelUri --channelId
Visual Studio 2022 Current channel https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/channel VisualStudio.17.Release
Visual Studio 2022 17.0 LTSC channel https://aka.ms/vs/17/release.LTSC.17.0/channel VisualStudio.17.Release.LTSC.17.0
Visual Studio 2022 Preview channel https://aka.ms/vs/17/pre/channel VisualStudio.17.Preview
Visual Studio 2019 Release channel https://aka.ms/vs/16/release/channel VisualStudio.16.Release
Visual Studio 2017 Release channel https://aka.ms/vs/15/release/channel VisualStudio.15.Release
Custom layout - Private Channel \\layoutserver\share\path\channelmanifest.json VisualStudio.17.Release (or whatever the layout was based on)

If you choose to use a custom layout as the update channel, then be aware of the following guidelines:

Using --remove

  • Remove the Profiling Tools component from the default installed Visual Studio instance. This example uses the installer already installed on the client machine. Standard users with appropriate permissions can programmatically execute the modify command using the installer, but they aren't allowed to use the --passive or --quiet switch. Note that you can't initiate the installer programmatically from the same directory that the installer resides in.

    "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer\setup.exe" modify ^
--installPath "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Enterprise" ^
--remove Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.DiagnosticTools ^
--passive

You can't use --remove in the same command as --layout. In other words, it's not possible to remove components from a layout.

Using --removeOos

Using the latest installer, you can modify an installation and remove all components that have transitioned to an out-of-support state from the default installed Visual Studio instance. This example uses the installer already installed on the client machine to configure the removeOos setting. Standard users, if they've been granted appropriate permissions, can programmatically execute the modify command using the installer, but they aren't allowed to use the --passive or --quiet switch. You can't initiate the installer programmatically from the same directory that the installer resides in.

 "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual studio\Installer\setup.exe" modify ^
 --installPath "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Enterprise" ^
 --removeOos true ^
 --passive

  • Adjust the update settings to persistently remove all components transitioned to an out-of-support state every time the product updates:

    "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual studio\Installer\setup.exe" modify ^
--channelURI https://aka.ms/vs/17/release.LTSC.17.0/channel ^
--productID Microsoft.VisualStudio.Product.Enterprise ^
--newChannelURI \\layoutserver\share\path\channelmanifest.json ^
--removeOos true ^
--quiet

Using --path

All of these examples assume you're installing a new product using a bootstrapper.

  • Use the install, cache, and shared paths:

    vs_enterprise.exe --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.CoreEditor --path install="C:\VS" --path cache="C:\VS\cache" --path shared="C:\VS\shared"

  • Use only the install and cache paths:

    vs_enterprise.exe --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.CoreEditor --path install="C:\VS" --path cache="C:\VS\cache"

  • Use only the install and shared paths:

    vs_enterprise.exe --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.CoreEditor --path install="C:\VS" --path shared="C:\VS\shared"

  • Use only the install path:

    vs_enterprise.exe --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.CoreEditor --path install="C:\VS"

Using export

  • Use export to save the selection from an installation. This example uses the installer already installed on the client machine.

    "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer\setup.exe" export --installPath "C:\VS" --config "C:\my.vsconfig"

  • Use export to save custom selection from scratch. This example uses the installer already installed on the client machine.

    "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer\setup.exe" export --channelId VisualStudio.17.Release --productId Microsoft.VisualStudio.Product.Enterprise --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.ManagedDesktop --includeRecommended --config "C:\my.vsconfig"

Using --config

  • Use --config to install the workloads and components from a previously saved installation configuration file:

    vs_enterprise.exe --config "C:\my.vsconfig" --installPath "C:\VS"

  • Use --config to add workloads and components to an existing installation. This example uses the installer already installed on the client machine. Standard users with appropriate permissions can programmatically execute the modify command using the installer, but they aren't allowed to use the --passive or --quiet switch. You can't initiate the installer programmatically from the same directory that the installer resides in.

    "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer\setup.exe" modify --installPath "C:\VS" --config "C:\my.vsconfig"

  • Use --config to configure the contents of a layout:

    vs_enterprise.exe --layout C:\layout --config "C:\my.vsconfig"

Using winget

Use the Windows Package Manager "winget" tool to programmatically install or update Visual Studio on your machines along with other packages managed by winget. To customize the installation and specify other workloads and components, you can use winget's --override switch alongside winget's install command, and pass in an exported vsconfig file like this:

winget install --id Microsoft.VisualStudio.2022.Community --override "--passive --config C:\my.vsconfig"

You can also use winget configure and pass in a .yaml file to modify an existing Visual Studio installation. This approach uses the Visual Studio PowerShell DSC provider that is documented here.

Support or troubleshooting

Sometimes, things can go wrong. If your Visual Studio installation fails, see Troubleshoot Visual Studio installation and upgrade issues for step-by-step guidance.

Here are a few more support options:

  • We offer an installation chat (English only) support option for installation-related issues.
  • Report product issues to us via the Report a Problem tool that appears both in the Visual Studio Installer and in the Visual Studio IDE. If you're an IT Administrator and don't have Visual Studio installed, you can submit IT Admin feedback here.
  • Suggest a feature, track product issues, and find answers in the Visual Studio Developer Community.

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