1. Visual Studio 2017 is a huge product, because we support so many types of development: from Android to UWP to C++ to Unity to Linux. If we were to still offer a 'full' install, it would come in at over 50GB. That's one huge ISO image!
2. We surveyed hundreds of people during the previews and RCs, and people told us that they had historically used an ISO for two reasons: (i) because they wanted to download once and create a network install for enterprise deployment; (ii) because they had a shaky internet connection and wanted to be sure they'd downloaded successfully before installing. A single monolithic ISO isn't the best solution for either of those scenarios - it's just the one that people are habituated to over all these years.
3. For the former (enterprise deployment), we have a full administrators' guide that provides detailed guidance on how to deploy the product: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/install/visual.... This includes PowerShell scripts, examples of using the installer to create and update a network cache, descriptions of how to deploy Visual Studio in a fully offline environment, and so on.
4. For the latter, we've worked really hard to improve the robustness of the installer. The componentization work we've done means that the smallest install is one-tenth the size of Visual Studio 2015, making it far more likely to succeed. And other typical installs are smaller too. We download VS in small packages that are more likely to succeed, and we use multiple ways (WebClient, BITS, WinInet) to download those files to minimize problems with AV and proxy software. If you want to download first then install, you can use the offline guide to cache just those pieces that you need, which we've just rewritten for RTW: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/install/create...
5. Because of the nature of our product (rapidly updating, lots of third-party components), an ISO is problematic. We don't have the rights to redistribute several large components (including Android), and others update on a rapid cadence that often includes critical security fixes, meaning an ISO image is incomplete, often outdated, and potentially insecure. Most customers assume that an ISO would support offline installation, but that's not true. And so we fear that offering an ISO will just creating more disappointment.
Lastly, we're listening to requests for an ISO and paying attention to the feedback we're getting; at the same time, we're hoping that this is the release where we can gently move forward to a new model that better supports delivery of developer tools at a fast, well-maintained cadence.
Hope this is useful context. And again, we're listening :)
Tim Sneath | Visual Studio Team
I feel an ISO including only standard packages from Microsoft itself would solve a lot of issues.
Layout is really crappy around blocked files or corporate firewalls. It feels untested in anything other than a completely open environment because some of the package downloads can fail silently with a fuzzy enterprise proxy. Creating layouts for patches seems dependant on what direction the wind is blowing, I think 2015 Update 3 took about 4 tries to download everything correctly and only way to verify was reading through the logs. Also that one needed a random Windows KB update on Windows 7 which was extra fun.
Better handling for layout around error handling and validation of downloads would be a boon. It would be great if there was a way of verifying an already created layout. Is there any way?
- During the installation, the installer can download the smaller needed updates. SQL Server installation does that.
- A company can download the 50GB file once only and put it on a network drive and the developers can install it from there. It saved bandwidth for the company instead of each dev downloading the same bits over and over.
- What about the machines that are not connected to the Internet? You mentioned there are ways around this.
I am fine with none ISO's but I wanted to post the counterarguments.
The command line I used:
vs_Enterprise.exe --layout z:\VS2017_RTM --lang en-US
...
Download of 'https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=823168' succeeded using engine 'WebClient'
Download of 'https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=833503' succeeded using engine 'WebClient'
Download of 'https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=833501' succeeded using engine 'WebClient'
Download of 'https://download.microsoft.com/download/B/5/5/B55373E5-8948-41DF-B1D5-F60896104294/WinSdkInstall.ps1' succeeded using engine 'WebClient'
Download of 'https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=838828' succeeded using engine 'WebClient'
2,631 Files, 1,005 Folders total 14,444,652,261 bytes
Well, it still doesn't work. Please let the MS team know that there's something about the offline download ("--layout" option) that's fragile and prone to hang. I don't believe it's an issue with overloaded servers because when I tried multiple times with RC2, it always hung on the exact same file whether it was morning/night/ weekday/weekend. I suspect the current problem is similar.
I took a screenshot of the hung process for RC2 in January and it seems to hang right after downloading WinSdkInstall.ps1 which is similar to RTM behavior:
RC2 hung in January: http://imgur.com/a/uwfoj
RTM hung in March (today): http://imgur.com/a/QxqC3
I want to the %TEMP% folder and looked at dd_setup_2017??.log and saw that it last executed:
Running: C:\Windows\SysWOW64\\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe with parameters: -NoLogo -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -InputFormat None -Command ...
I remembered that sometimes those commands hang on network paths so I ran "vs_Enterprise.exe --layout" again to local "C:\VS2017_RTM" instead of mapped "Z:\VS2017_RTM".
It then completed without hanging. The completed target folder has:
1,901 Files, 765 Folders total 22,171,951,890 bytes
It seems also to be broken, or your servers are choked :-(
If there is licensing complexity in making an ISO file, just make a ZIP file of the whole thing.
lol.
https://www.hanselman.com/blog/HowToMakeAnOfflineInstallerFo...
I attempted to create the offline installer [1] but the vs_community.exe just silently quit after some mintues, having downloaded only some certificates.
The custom download idea is easily planted with malware and all those bad things. Also, please consider upgrading from SHA-1.
> We understand that a lot of customers want an offline installer for Visual Studio 2017. Even though we don't offer an ISO image, it's easy to create your own.
1: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/install/create...