Visual Studio Administrator Guide

  • Article

You can deploy Visual Studio on a network. However, target computers must meet the minimum installation requirements.

Supported Operating System Releases

The target computer must have one of the following operating system releases:

  • Windows 8

  • Windows 7

  • Windows Server 2012

  • Windows Server 2008 R2

To find the download locations for these operating system releases, see Service Packs on the Microsoft Support Web site.

Why Install Service Packs?

Product updates are distributed by using service packs. Service packs may contain improvements to system reliability, program compatibility, security, and more.

Detection and Servicing Keys

Detection subkeys in the registry let you determine whether a Visual Studio product is already installed on a computer. Servicing subkeys let you detect whether a service release of the product is installed.

The following table lists the detection and servicing subkeys for different Visual Studio products.

In the table, LCID represents the locale ID (LCID) for your installation. For a list of valid LCIDs, see Locale IDs Assigned by Microsoft on the MSDN Web site.

In the listed subkeys, dword:00000001 means true, and dword:00000000 means false. For the UpdateVersion key, the value is the build number of the update that was installed.

Product

Install Key

Update Key

Visual Studio Ultimate

x86: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DevDiv\VS\Servicing\version\Ultimate\LCID\Install

x64: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\DevDiv\VS\Servicing\version\Ultimate\LCID\Install

x86: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DevDiv\VS\Servicing\version\Ultimate\LCID\UpdateVersion

x64: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\DevDiv\VS\Servicing\version\Ultimate\LCID\UpdateVersion

Visual Studio Premium

x86: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DevDiv\VS\Servicing\version\Premium\LCID\Install

x64: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\DevDiv\VS\Servicing\version\Premium\LCID\Install

x86: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DevDiv\VS\Servicing\version\Premium\LCID\UpdateVersion

x64: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\DevDiv\VS\Servicing\version\Premium\LCID\UpdateVersion

Visual Studio Professional

x86: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DevDiv\VS\Servicing\version\Professional\LCID\Install

x64: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\DevDiv\VS\Servicing\version\Professional\LCID\Install

x86: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DevDiv\VS\Servicing\version\Professional\LCID\SP

x64: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\DevDiv\VS\Servicing\version\Professional\LCID\UpdateVersion

Avoiding Restart During Setup

On Windows 7, during the setup process, you may be prompted to restart the computer because the .NET Framework 4.5 must be installed before Visual Studio can be installed.

To avoid this restart, you can pre-install the .NET Framework 4.5. The component locations are listed in the following table.

Component

Directory

Unattended Installation Command

.NET Framework version 4.5

WCU\dotNetFramework

dotNetFx45_Full_x86_x64.exe /q /norestart /ChainingPackage "ADMINDEPLOYMENT"

Error Return Codes

The following table lists important error codes. These codes are closely tied to whether a reboot of the client computer is need.

Setup Status

Restart not required

Restart required

Description

Success

0x00000000 [0]

0x00000bc2 [3010]

Successful installation.

Block

0x80044000 [-2147205120]

0x8004C000 [-2147172352]

If the only block to be reported is “Reboot Pending,” the returned value is the Incomplete-Reboot Required value (0x80048bc7).

Cancel

0x00000642 [1602]

0x80048642 [-2147187134]

When the Reboot value is returned, the Result Value is 1602.

Incomplete

N/A

0x80048bc7 [-2147185721]

Installation canceled.

Failure

0x00000643 [1603]

0x80048643 [-2147187133]

When the Reboot value is returned, the Result Value is 1603.

Specifying Customer Feedback Settings

You can configure Visual Studio to enable customer feedback on individual computers by changing the value of the following registry key. The value can be dword:00000001 for true, dword:00000000 for false. If the key is null or absent, this installation inherits the default setting of its Visual Studio edition, for example, Visual Studio Professional.

x86: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VSCommon\11.0\SQM\Optin

x64: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VSCommon\11.0\SQM\Optin

Topic

Description

How to: Create and Run an Unattended Installation of Visual Studio

Shows how to install Visual Studio in unattended mode.

Installing Visual Studio

Provides links to topics and information that describes how to install Visual Studio.