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I need to install Visual C++ Build Tools. When I've download installer, I've tried to install it, however it's telling me I need to uninstall VS 2015!

How can I solve it? Why is Visual C++ Build tools telling me it needs to remove current VS 2015 installation?

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    You don't "need" to install it, you already have the necessary build tools. The package you downloaded is only interesting if you need to setup, say, a build server. Then again, we can't guess what "need" might mean. Commented Nov 9, 2016 at 10:21

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I just stumbled onto this issue accessing some Python libraries: Microsoft Visual C++ 14.0 is required. Get it with "Microsoft Visual C++ Build Tools". The latest link to that is actually here: https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/#build-tools-for-visual-studio-2019

When you begin the installer, it will have several "options" enabled which will balloon the install size to 5gb. If you have Windows 10, you'll need to leave selected the "Windows 10 SDK" option as mentioned here, and if you have Windows 11, you'll need to leave selected the "Windows 11 SDK" option.

enter image description here

I hope it helps save others time!

2025/07 Updated Link: https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/#title-build-tools-for-visual-studio-2022

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8 Comments

This currently links through to Build Tools for Visual Studio 2017, making this answer identical to caiohamamura's.
Well, I guess if Microsoft later updated the link and someone later put in the new link my answer wasn't a duplicate at that time since his answer came 2 months later, right?
Link for the extra lazy -- visualstudio.microsoft.com/thank-you-downloading-visual-studio/…
is it required to download Microsoft visual c++ build tools separately? like can we just download the "visual studio community 2019" and will that get rid of "MS Visual c++ 14.0 is required" error?
@NitishPrajapati No, as the "here" link in the answer states, you need to install Windows 10 SDK in addition. "C++ Buildtools" are offered as an optional installer inside "Visual Studio Community 2019", so you need the latter to install the former, and of the former you seem to need only the Windows 10 SDK. I cannot say this for sure as I read this too late and installed all of the auto-checked boxes of the C++ Buildtools.
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The current version (2023/09/14) is Build Tools for Visual Studio 2022. It's an online installer, you need to include at least the individual components:

  • VC++ 2022 version xx.x tools
  • Windows SDK to use standard libraries.

For updated Windows 10 or Windows 11: use the new winget cli

Just copy and paste that command in cmd, powershell or Run (WinKey + R).

Windows 10 SDK

winget install Microsoft.VisualStudio.2022.BuildTools --force --override "--wait --passive --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.Tools.x86.x64 --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Windows10SDK"

Windows 11 SDK

winget install Microsoft.VisualStudio.2022.BuildTools --force --override "--wait --passive --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.Tools.x86.x64 --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Windows11SDK.26100"

The above commands will download and run the installer with the switches passed after --override.

The --add will add specific features when installing, in this case:

  • Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.Tools.x86.x64
  • Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Windows10SDK or
  • Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Windows11SDK.26100

Within Microsoft's docs you can find the IDs of the features available for the Visual Studio Build Tools and in this section also learn more about other parameters available for the installer.

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5 Comments

what is difference between "MS visual studio community 2019" and "MS visual c++ build tools" and will installing "MS visual studio community 2019 ide" suffice the need for visual build tools? I was working on python in pycharm and it gave me error "MS visual c++ 14 build tools required" something like that while installing python packages in pycharm ide
Python 2.7 will always try to use MS Visual C++ 14. Microsoft has even released a dedicated installer to provide build tools for python.
so can I assume that installing community ide will install build tools as well?
@NitishPrajapati the difference is that visual studio community will install the full IDE with all its dependencies, while build tools will only provide the necessary tools for building C/C++, .NET apps/libs from source code. So you if you are not a windows developer guy yourself (or dislike MS Visual Studio IDE), but you need to compile from source code you only need the build tools
@NitishPrajapati it will, but as I said Python 2.7 needs the specific MS Visual C++ 14 version, it won't work out of the box with the 2019 version.
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You can check Announcing the official release of the Visual C++ Build Tools 2015 and from this blog, we can know that the Build Tools are the same C++ tools that you get with Visual Studio 2015 but they come in a scriptable standalone installer that only lays down the tools you need to build C++ projects. The Build Tools give you a way to install the tools you need on your build machines without the IDE you don’t need.

Because these components are the same as the ones installed by the Visual Studio 2015 Update 2 setup, you cannot install the Visual C++ Build Tools on a machine that already has Visual Studio 2015 installed. Therefore, it asks you to uninstall your existing VS 2015 when you tried to install the Visual C++ build tools using the standalone installer. Since you already have the VS 2015, you can go to Control Panel—Programs and Features and right click the VS 2015 item and Change-Modify, then check the option of those components that relates to the Visual C++ Build Tools, like Visual C++, Windows SDK… then install them. After the installation is successful, you can build the C++ projects.

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4 Comments

In my case, upgrading from Update 1 to Update 3 fixed the problem.
Blog post points to 2017 tools now. Standalone installer link is dead.
Is it possible only to download the Visual C++ build tool script without IDE?
This seems to be the correct link: devblogs.microsoft.com/cppblog/…
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As of Jan 2022, here are direct, official links to Visual Studio Build Tools:

Visual Studio 2017 Build Tools: https://aka.ms/vs/15/release/vs_buildtools.exe
Visual Studio 2019 Build Tools: https://aka.ms/vs/16/release/vs_buildtools.exe
Visual Studio 2022 Build Tools: https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vs_buildtools.exe

(aka.ms is a Microsoft domain)

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Does this include C++ build tools, or only C# build tools?
these are c++ only afaik
VS and VC++ are different things reddit.com/r/rust/comments/8g4ksv/comment/dy91z3t/…
can I use it in developing at(!) 32x windows, or these installers are only(!) for 64x to be installed at ?? (nowhere can find such info about releases)
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For the latest Visual Studio 2022:

At any time after installation, you can install workloads or components that you didn't install initially. If you have Visual Studio open, go to Tools > Get Tools and Features... which opens the Visual Studio Installer. Or, open Visual Studio Installer from the Start menu. From there, you can choose the workloads or components that you wish to install. Then, choose Modify.

Source: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/build/vscpp-step-0-installation?view=msvc-170

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Here is a link that will only install Build Tools: https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/visual-cpp-build-tools/

I have not tried on a system with Visual Studio though but at least it did not try to install gigabytes of stuff.

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I had the same issue too, the problem is exacerbated with the download link now only working for Visual Studio 2017, and installing the package from the download link did nothing for VS2015, although it took up 5gB of space.

I looked everywhere on how to do it with the Nu Get package manager and I couldn't find the solution.

It turns out it's even simpler than that, all you have to do is right-click the project or solution in the Solution Explorer from within Visual Studio, and click "Install Missing Components"

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Sorry for stating what may be very obvious. But it will only work if you install the build tool that matches the version of Visual Studio you are working with. I am using VS Code (sorry if this info is irrelevant), and I got it to work by installing the build tool for VS Code, and setting up VS Code to work with C++ by following this official guide

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Additionally to Aaron Belchamber's answer, as applied to VS 2022 situation (particularly, after spending hours trying to install PyVizgraph via pip):

  • Verify Visual C++ Build Tools Installation
  • Ensure you have installed the correct components of the Microsoft Build Tools. For Visual Studio 2022, follow these steps:
    • Open the Visual Studio Installer.
    • Click on Modify for your Visual Studio 2022 installation.
    • Go to the Workloads tab.
    • Under Desktop Development with C++, ensure you have selected:
      • MSVC v143 - VS 2022 C++ x64/x86 build tools [today's latest]
      • C++ CMake tools for Windows
      • Go to the Individual Components tab and check the following: Windows 10/11 SDK (latest version) [normally the latest in the list]
      • C++/CLI support
    • Apply the changes and wait for the installation to complete.
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