Installing Visual Studio

Visual Studio can be installed by using the installation media (for example, DVDs), or by downloading from the product website.

For a list of system requirements, see the Visual Studio Readme.

This document provides the following installation information:

• Installing Visual Studio

• Troubleshooting Installation Problems

• Enterprise Network Deployment

• After Visual Studio Is Installed

  • Registering Visual Studio

  • Repairing Visual Studio

  • Installing Optional Components

  • Checking for Service Releases and Product Updates

  • Uninstalling Visual Studio

• Related Topics

Installing Visual Studio

You must have administrator credentials to install Visual Studio. However, you do not have to have these credentials to use Visual Studio after it is installed.

If an earlier version of Visual Studio is installed on the computer, read about how to run multiple versions. For more information, see Installing Visual Studio Versions Side-by-Side and Determining Which Version of the .NET Framework Is Installed.

Installing By Using Installation Media

Start installing Visual Studio by running Setup.exe, which is located in the root directory on the Visual Studio installation media.

Installing By Downloading from the Product Website

Start installing Visual Studio by going to Visual Studio Downloads on the MSDN website, and then selecting the edition you want to download.

Installing Visual Studio in Virtualized Environments

If you run Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V enabled and an accelerated graphics adapter, you may experience system slowdowns that are caused by an interaction of Hyper-V, CPU features, and accelerated graphics adapters (see KB 961661). This may affect customers who want to use the graphics-rich Visual Studio 2010 environment while they use Hyper-V for testing. To avoid these slowdowns, reconfigure the system as follows:

• On Windows Server 2008, you can use a non-accelerated graphics card, a basic graphics driver (VGA.sys), or an XP-based graphics driver. Any of these options will cause reduced graphics performance and functionality, for example, loss of multi-monitor support.

• On Windows Server 2008 R2, you can use any of the options for Windows Server 2008, or you can ensure that the system supports a feature known as "Nested Page Tables" (AMD), "Rapid Virtualization Indexing" (AMD), or "Extended Page Tables" (Intel). This feature is present on AMD Phenom and Opteron processors, and on Intel Nehalem processors (Core i7 series, Xeon 5500 series). The processor feature is the preferred option because it enables full graphics performance and functionality without system slowdowns.

Using Command-Line Parameters

The following table lists command-line parameters that are available when you run Setup.

Troubleshooting Installation Problems

For more information about possible installation issues, see Additional Information About Setup and Installation Errors.

Enterprise Network Deployment

For information about how to deploy Visual Studio over a network, see Visual Studio Administrator Guide.

After Visual Studio Is Installed

After you have installed a Visual Studio edition, we recommend that you register your copy of the product and check for updates.

Registering Visual Studio

To register Visual Studio

• On the Help menu, click Register Product.

  Note

  Microsoft Passport Network credentials (the e-mail address and password on the Microsoft Passport network) and the product identification number (PID) are required to register. The PID is displayed in the About dialog box on the Help menu.

• Or, use the registration card in the product box.

Repairing Visual Studio

To repair Visual Studio on Windows XP or earlier

1. In Control Panel, on the Add or Remove Programs page, select the product edition you want to repair and then click Change/Remove.

2. In the Setup wizard, click Next.

3. Click Repair or Reinstall.

To repair Visual Studio on Windows Vista

1. In Control Panel, on the Programs and Features page, select the product edition you want to repair and then click Uninstall/Change.

2. In the Setup wizard, select Repair or Reinstall and then click Next.

3. Follow the remaining instructions.

Installing Optional Components

The Visual Studio IDE directly uses some Microsoft Office applications, for example, opening lists or results in Microsoft Excel. This functionality requires that the .NET Programmability Support for Microsoft Office be installed. If this component is not already installed, use one of the following procedures to install it.

To install optional components on Windows 7 or Vista

1. In Control Panel, on the Programs and Features page, select the product edition you want to add to and then click Uninstall/Change.

2. In the Setup wizard, select Add Optional Products and then click Next.

3. Select the components you want to install and then click Next.

4. Follow the remaining instructions.

To install optional components on Windows XP or earlier

1. In Control Panel, on the Add or Remove Programs page, select the product edition you want to add to and then click Change/Remove.

2. In the Setup wizard, click Next.

3. Click Add or Remove Features.

4. In the Select features to install list, select the items that you want to install and then click Update.

Checking for Service Releases and Product Updates

To check for service releases

• On the Help menu, click Check for Updates.

  This opens the Microsoft Update website where service releases are available for download.

  Note

  If you have changed the settings for Security and Privacy in the Internet Options dialog box in Internet Explorer, you might receive an error message when you try to check for updates. Reset the Security and Privacy settings to the default values and then check for updates again.

To check for other updates

1. Go to the Visual Studio Shipped Software Updates website.

2. Browse for updates that may be available for your version.

Uninstalling Visual Studio

To uninstall Visual Studio

• To uninstall Visual Studio, download and run the Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Uninstall Utility. By default, this removes Visual Studio and supporting components, but does not remove components that are shared with other applications on the computer. To also remove shared components, run the uninstall utility with the /full switch. To also remove the .NET Framework 4, use the netfx switch.

  Warning

  Uninstalling shared components or .NET Framework 4 may break earlier versions of Visual Studio or other applications that depend on .

If you cannot uninstall Visual Studio by using the uninstall utility, you can perform a manual uninstall by removing Visual Studio and then removing related components.

To manually uninstall Visual Studio

1. In the Control Panel, open the utility for uninstalling a program, for example, in Windows 7, open Uninstall a program.

2. Remove all instances of Visual Studio 2010 products.

3. Uninstall any supporting products, in the following order. In non-English installations, you must also remove language packs for some of the listed products. You do not have to reboot until after you have removed the last package on the list.

   1. Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 ADO.NET Entity Framework Tools

   2. Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Transact-SQL Language Service

   3. Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Data-Tier Application Project

   4. Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Data-Tier Application Framework

   5. Microsoft Sync Framework SDK v1.0 SP1

   6. Microsoft Sync Framework Services v1.0 SP1

   7. Microsoft Sync Framework Runtime v1.0 SP1

   8. Microsoft Silverlight 3 SDK

   9. Microsoft ASP.NET MVC 2

   10. Microsoft ASP.NET MVC 2 - Visual Studio 2010 Tools

   11. Microsoft .NET Framework 4 Multi-Targeting Pack

   12. Microsoft TFS Object Model

   13. Microsoft Visual F# 2.0 Runtime

   14. Microsoft Visual Studio x64 Prerequisites

Related Topics