visual c++ redistributable 2017 wont uninstall?

Question

visual c++ redistributable 2017 wont uninstall?

christian thomsen 1

I got this weird problem with visual c++ redistributable 2017. I'm trying to uninstall it from programs and it says "setup successful" problem is, that it doesn't disappear from the list. There is no associated folders for this. I looked in Local Appdata, program files and program files x86. What is happening? I tried to run TotalInstaller with no luck either. Also i cannot install it, cause it tells me that the program is already installed.

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Answer 1

Michael Taylor 60,331

Personally I'd be leery of removing the C++ runtime as you have no way of knowing what other apps are relying on it. If you remove the runtime and then try to run an app that relies on it that app will fail. Unlike, say .NET, having later major versions doesn't cause older software to automatically use them.

Starting with VS 2015 MS hasn't changed the major version # of the C++ runtime. Instead each new version of VS uses a minor update to the base v14 runtime. At least between 2015 and 2019 all the runtime versions are compatible. This can of course change in the future but will then result in a newer v15 runtime. So if you build your app in VS 2015/2017/2019 then you only need at least the version of the runtime that your code compiled against. Newer versions are fine.

As for your error I believe it might be explained here. At the bottom of this article it mentions an explicit installation block is in place such that you cannot install an older C++ runtime (v14x) on a machine that already has a newer version installed. There is no reason to as apps will be using the newer version anyway. So I'm going to guess you already have the VS 2019 (v142 I think) runtime installed and therefore cannot install any older versions including VS 2015/2017 (v140, v141).

Michael Taylor 60,331 Reputation points

2021-03-24T13:35:56.08+00:00

Forgot to mention about the uninstall thing. Normally if you go into Add/Remove Programs and try to remove something and it fails then Windows will ask if you want to remove the entry and you say yes. This removes it from the registry where the UI gets its values from. It doesn't actually remove the app (if it were still installed). So the alternative approach is to go into the registry and delete the corresponding key if you really want to remove it from the UI.
christian thomsen 1 Reputation point

2021-03-24T13:45:17.36+00:00

The reason why i'm trying to uninstall is because it won't let me install Oculus software for my VR. It came with an error and i have been trying to fix for some hours now. So now i tried to uninstall the instances of VC ive had on the pc, but the 2017 will not obey. When i try to install again it says it's already installed? I cannot find a single folder with the name or files associated with this.
Castorix31 90,686 Reputation points

2021-03-24T13:53:11.017+00:00

VC++ redistributables are by default in System directory (%WINDIR%\System32)
(files like MSVCR150.dll)
Michael Taylor 60,331 Reputation points

2021-03-25T13:57:07.14+00:00

Doing a quick google it does appear the Oculus installer has issues with the C++ runtime. Ideally they should fix the issue.

As for uninstalling VS 2017 you said that after uninstall it still appears in the program list. Do note that there are 2 versions installed (x86 and x64). You would need to get rid of both but it appears that Oculus is x64 so uninstalling that version may be sufficient. However I don't know what error you're getting when installing the VR software so I'm assuming that it is trying to install the VS 2015 version but will fail because the newer VS 2017 (and possibly VS 2019) version is installed.

Answer 2

Sandeep Karri 1

Hey, I faced the same problem as you. It was really annoying. Cheer Up! I found the solution. Visit this page https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist?view=msvc-160 and download the redistributable package from 2015-2019 and install it. Your 2017 package merges into 2015-2019 package and you'll have all of the redistributable packages from 2015 to 2019 in a single program.

Tomas Orri 1 Reputation point

2021-12-18T14:48:12.84+00:00

When i try to install the pack this error comes up https://imgur.com/a/lyVQV19
Jack Teti 11 Reputation points

2022-12-08T20:06:43.49+00:00

Same, sometimes when I get a new game on steam it tries to install "Microsoft VC Redistributable" and I get this message when I try to open the game.

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visual c++ redistributable 2017 wont uninstall?

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