Ran the following commands in Admin PowerShell window. The module did not load properly. Running Windows internal Microsoft release RS3 RTM Version 10.0.16299 Build 16299.

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Install-Module VSSetup -Scope CurrentUser
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-VSSetupInstance
Get-VSSetupInstance : The term 'Get-VSSetupInstance' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file,
or operable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and
try again.
At line:1 char:1

• Get-VSSetupInstance

•   + CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (Get-VSSetupInstance:String) [], CommandNotFoundException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : CommandNotFoundException
  
  

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-Command -Module VSSetup
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32>

I am trying to use this repository as an example of how to locate the MSVC tools (cl.exe, link.exe, et al) without making any assumptions as to where VS is installed. I understand that I can use the Select-VSSetupInstance cmdlet to identify the latest working version of VS that has the required workload. Unfortunately, I do not know what the internal name of the component or workload that contains the MSVC tools is, and therefore do not know what parameters to pass to that cmdlet! Could you please add a listing to this repository of all the workload display names and the corresponding programmatic IDs? This would make use of this code much easier. Thanks!

I installed VS 2019 Preview, and noticed it's not detected as an instance while running:
Get-VSSetupInstance

Is there some option I'm missing or it just doesn't work with preview instances?

I'm looking for a fix of visual studio registration or 'Microsoft Setup Configuration query API' registration (COM?). I know this is not a vssetup.powershell issue, but could be fixed by ' vssetup.powershell.

I noticed the symptom when I tried to install ReSharper on the VS2017 - 15.7 but the installer showed the following warning message:

Installer could not access the Microsoft Setup Configuration query API

So, I also run Get-VSSetupInstance (from this module) and get this error:

WARNING: The setup configuration provider is not registered. Assuming no registered instances.

Could be possible add a Cmd-Let to fix the registration?

I also run a clean up with:

%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer\resources\app\layout\InstallCleanup.exe -i

and installed the VS again, but doesn't work.

See microsoft/vswhere#79 for details.

Please consider adding asterisk as special value for Product parameter of Select-VSSetupInstance that will search through all instances. This would allow finding all products with required workloads or components installed regardless if it is full VS instance or for example Build Tools installation.

vswhere tool supports * value for products filter as of version 1.0.40

Select-VSSetupInstance -Latest - is it about install date or version?

The help says

-Latest [<SwitchParameter>]
    Select the most recently installed instance with the highest version (within the optional `-Version` range).

so it is not clear whether it is about date or version.

If we take a look at the code
then it looks like it is about installation dates and versions are not checked.

If it is true, is it by design that Latest deals with installation dates, not versions?

In any case, the help might be more clear about what is checked.

NB (Just for cross-reference) Loosely related to this issue nightroman/Invoke-Build#122

Hello

I would prefer to use vssetup.powershell, which is PowerShell native than vswhere.exe. However I can't find the PowerShell equivalent for the -find parameter of vswhere. For instance:

vswhere.exe -latest -requires Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.TeamFoundationClient -find **\Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Client.dll

Is it supported by PowerShell? If so, how should I write it?

Thank you for your help

François

PS: this is a duplicate of vswhere:issue#189

We have a script which uses winget and custom powershell modules to install tools and visual studio 2019 for a self-hosted Azure Devops build agent. More often than not, Get-VSSetupInstance is unable to detect the newly installed instance of VS2019 if I execute it from the same powershell session used to install VS 2019. If I reboot the machine and re-execute Get-VSSetupInstance, it works. Is there something I am doing wrong? When installing visual studio, I am passing the --norestart parameter as specified here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/install/use-command-line-parameters-to-install-visual-studio?view=vs-2019. The variable $VS2019 is used to calculate path for vsixinstaller.exe which we then use to programmatically download and install VSIX from the marketplace.

This is the powershell snippet we use and without a reboot, $VS2019 variable is $null.

switch ($Edition) {
    'Enterprise' { $DisplayName = 'Visual Studio Enterprise 2019'}
    'Professional' { $DisplayName = 'Visual Studio Professional 2019'}
    'Community' { $DisplayName = 'Visual Studio Community 2019'}
    'BuildTools' { $DisplayName = 'Visual Studio Build Tools 2019'}
}

$VsSetup = Get-InstalledModule -Name VsSetup -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue -Verbose:$false

if ($null -eq $VsSetup) {
    Install-Module -Name VsSetup -Repository PSGallery -Verbose:$false
}

Import-Module -Name VsSetup -Verbose:$false

$VS2019 = Get-VsSetupInstance -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue -Verbose:$false |  `
    Where-Object { ($_.DisplayName -ieq $DisplayName) -and ($_.Product.Id -ieq "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Product.$($Edition)") } | `
    Select-VSSetupInstance -Latest -Verbose:$false

I tried installing the feature as per the documentation steps and the module seems to install. However, when i attempt to invoke using the following command: Get-VSSetupInstance

The command is not detected. Lower versions of PS (5.0 below) seem to work, though.

Specs used:

• PS 6.0.0-alpha.18
• Win7 x64

Visual Studio 2019 installer allows you to install different versions of the compiler. e.g.

MSVC v142 - VS 2019 C++ x64/x86 build tools (v14.24)
MSVC v141 - VS 2017 C++ x64/x86 build tools (v14.16)
MSVC v140 - VS 2015 C++ build tools (v14.00)

I have all three of these installed but:

> Get-VSSetupInstance -All

InstanceId          : 13fe59b9
DisplayName         : Visual Studio Build Tools 2019
InstallationVersion : 16.4.29728.190
InstallationPath    : C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\BuildTools
InstallDate         : 04/02/2020 16:22:55

How do I therefore set up a powershell session so that I can use the 2017 tools?

Add support to locate legacy versions of visual studio
vswhere has support for this via -legacy

Export cmdlets explicitly via the psd1 file (probably also the variable) as recommended in PowerShell/PowerShell#5670 and to support constrained mode.

Corresponds to microsoft/vswhere#127

Based on https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/powershell/2017/12/05/prerelease-versioning-added-to-powershellget-and-powershell-gallery/ we can now publish prerelease. Consider adding support for the develop branch.

When visual studio installed in default setup it's working fine. Failing when it's installed in a different location.

When trying to install VSSetup module by running the following command:

Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Scope CurrentUser
Install-Module VSSetup -Scope CurrentUser -Force -Confirm:$false

But it fails with "Access to the cloud file is denied"

PackageManagement\Install-Package : Access to the cloud file is denied
At C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\PowerShellGet\1.0.0.1\PSModule.psm1:1809 char:21

• ... $null = PackageManagement\Install-Package @PSBoundParameters

•                  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  

  • CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (Microsoft.Power....InstallPackage:InstallPackage) [Install-Package], Exception
  • FullyQualifiedErrorId : System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.RemoveItemCommand,Microsoft.PowerShell.PackageManagement.Cmdlets.InstallPackage

Not sure how to resolve this issue. Can't seem to find any help online as well.

First of all, great module, very useful in build scripts!

I am mainstaining a couple of projects where it is desirable that they are buildable using previous versions of VS / tools. I therefore had to create a wrapper around VSSetup to be able to locate VS 2013 and 2015 too.

It would be nice if the VSSetup supported at least 2 previous VS versions natively.

When updating to latest query API, update the instance 3 test data to use registry-based detection after we replaced file detection (was not always being deleted on reboot).

It would seem the -Latest argument should always return the latest instance found, but it doesn't return anything if there is only 1 instance to choose from. Multiple instances seems to work.

PowerShell modules can also deploy DSC types. Consider a DSC type to check if an instance matching the desired product and workloads is present, and to either update the existing product (if compatible, e.g. Enterprise requested and Enterprise present, so update it; otherwise, install it) or install a new one (i.e. while supported via command line, it's not supported in the user interface so probably not this option).

I am expecting Microsoft to digitally sign its powershell scripts. This might make the process in a rolling github relase more cumbersome. On the other hand the process of digitally signing the scripts can be automated. In the current state the unsigned script violates the execution policy on all Windows systems:

CouldNotAutoloadMatchingModule - script not signed!

Install-Module VSSetup -Scope CurrentUser

Install-Module : A parameter cannot be found that matches parameter name 'Scope'.
At line:1 char:24
+ Install-Module VSSetup -Scope CurrentUser
+                        ~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidArgument: (:) [Install-Module], ParameterBindingException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : NamedParameterNotFound,Install-Module

Further, I'm very curious how Powershell would know where to resolve VSSetup from.

I am on Windows 10 build 14393.rs1_release.161220-1747

it would be nice if the tool could report on the Download Cache path and the Shared Components, tools and SDKs path for each of the VS instances.

This is to track a potential bug in the COM server DLL I'm looking into. To allow the integration tests to pass I had to remove the "errors" property from instance 2, which should still indicate the instance is launchable.

There are important files that Microsoft projects should all have that are not present in this repository. A pull request has been opened to add the missing file(s). When the pr is merged this issue will be closed automatically.

Microsoft teams can learn more about this effort and share feedback within the open source guidance available internally.

Merge this pull request

I need a way to -Require SSIS - that is, get whatever instance supports building Integration Services packages. Right now, I have a 2019 and a 2022. My -Latest is failing because 2022 does not yet have support for SSIS. I did a list of the workload/components, but it's not listed. Is there a way to capture these?

It would be nice if one could do a Get-VSSetupInstance -ComputerName MyBuildserver.
I have tried with something like Invoke-Command MyBuildserver -Scriptblock {Get-VSSetupInstance} without luck.

version 2.0.1.32208

import-module vssetup
import-module : The following error occurred while loading the extended type data file: Error in TypeData
"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Setup.Instance": Type "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Setup.PowerShell.InstanceAdapter"
should be a PSPropertyAdapter.
At line:1 char:1

• import-module vssetup

•   + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (:) [Import-Module], RuntimeException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : FormatXmlUpdateException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.ImportModuleCommand
  

For build agents, typically one will install just build tools, and not full Visual Studio.
In my situation, I have VS2017 (full) and VS2019 build tools installed on the agent, Get-VSSetupInstance nicely returns:

InstanceId          : b58ec7ca
DisplayName         : Visual Studio Build Tools 2019
InstallationVersion : 16.3.29403.142
InstallationPath    : C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\BuildTools
InstallDate         : 10/9/2019 9:39:06 PM

InstanceId          : ed899074
DisplayName         : Visual Studio Professional 2017
InstallationVersion : 15.9.28307.770
InstallationPath    : C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Professional
InstallDate         : 10/17/2017 8:06:13 PM

However, if I pipe that to Select-VSSetupInstance -Latest, I only get back the VS2017 instance, which is not the latest.

It seems the Select-VSSetupInstance function only returns retail install instances?

Thanks

Apparently never tested just removing the VSSetup module. One cannot since $VSSetupVersionTable is constant, nor can it be forcibly removed. Should make it read-only. Seems there'd be little incentive to change the values and $PSVersionTable doesn't prevent it either. Should also probably set the AllScope option as is set on $PSVersionTable.

I have BuildTools 16.3.8 installed on my machine Windows 10 1909 Build.

And want to get the installation path for the MSBuild. Eventually I want to run following command to get the InstallationPath:
Get-VSSetupInstance | Select-VSSetupInstance -Version '[16.2,)' -Latest | Select-Object -ExpandProperty InstallationPath

And I see nothing in output. So I tried debugging this and found that the Select-VSSetupInstance does not return anything.

PS C:\Windows\System32> Get-VSSetupInstance


InstanceId          : 50bb1fd5
DisplayName         : Visual Studio Build Tools 2019
InstallationVersion : 16.3.29503.13
InstallationPath    : C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\BuildTools
InstallDate         : 10/17/2019 9:31:32 AM



PS C:\Windows\System32> Get-VSSetupInstance | Select-VSSetupInstance
PS C:\Windows\System32>

What am I missing?

Request standard help format so that Get-Help shows more than an empty help template for the VSSetup commands.