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Visual C++ Redistributable Installation Directory

Anonymous
2023-10-25T15:30:18+00:00

I have a long standing application built on Visual C++ 2008. Over the course of time, to help people who install it, we've implemented some "health checks" before installing to ensure C++ is installed on your system. What we're doing is checking in the %windir%\WinSxS\* directory for the folder/files present to make sure the .dll's are present on the system.

We just tried installing this on a newer lab system, and have found that the C++ .dll's are installed in "C:\Windows\WinSxS\Fusion" directory, which causes our application to produce a "false negative" response of "C++ isn't installed".

Can someone please help me understand how the C++ installer determines where it is going to install itself? I have the same installer that we've been using for the better part of a decade in my installer package, so I'm certain that whatever it is isn't hard coded in the installer. I've also double checked all of my system environment variables (at least the ones present in the System Properties application) and none of them are configured for this "fusion" directory.

I need to understand how this work so I can enhance my application to check for all of the right things.

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Performance and system failures

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-10-26T07:54:35+00:00

    Hi BMC_dev_alawson,

    Welcome to Microsoft Community.

    I'm Hahn and I'm here to help you with your concern.

    I'm sorry to hear that you are having trouble with your application installation. I did some research and found some information that might help you understand how the Visual C++ Redistributable installer works.

    According to the [Latest supported Visual C++ Redistributable downloads | Microsoft Learn], the Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015-2022 installs the Microsoft C and C++ (MSVC) runtime libraries in the Windows system directories, such as C:\Windows\System32 or C:\Windows\SysWOW64. These libraries are required by many applications built by using Microsoft C and C++ tools. The installer also registers the libraries in the Windows Side-by-Side (WinSxS) folder, which is located at C:\Windows\WinSxS. The WinSxS folder contains multiple versions of the same DLLs that can be used by different applications without causing conflicts. The WinSxS folder also contains a subfolder called Fusion, which is used by the .NET Framework to store assembly information.

    The location of the Visual C++ Redistributable files depends on the version of Visual Studio, the architecture of the target system, and the operating system version.

    Unfortunately, Visual C++ issue is not supported on the Microsoft Answers forum. It is more suitable for publishing on Microsoft Learn (English only), you can click on "Ask a question", there are experts who can provide more professional solutions in that place. 

    Here is a link: C++ - Microsoft Q&A****to the forum where you can raise specific scenarios and share your idea to help solve the problem. 

    I won't be able to help you, but I'll leave that question open in case one of our amazing volunteers has ideas for you. 

    Your Sincerely

    Hahn - MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

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