How To Repair Visual Studio

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Repair Visual Studio

Article
09/14/2021
3 minutes to read

Sometimes your Visual Studio installation becomes damaged or corrupted. A repair is useful for fixing a wide variety of install-time issues, including update issues.

When to use repair

Use repair if you're having issues with:

Installation payload, which can happen when writing a file to disk is unsuccessful and the file gets corrupted. Repair can reacquire needed files.
Client-side download—assuming you've fixed any internet connection or proxy issues.
Updating Visual Studio. Repair fixes many common update issues.

Tip

An unstable internet connection or an issue in a Windows service, like Windows Installer, can cause install issues. In those scenarios, repair might also be affected. To check for underlying issues, review the error report generated by the Visual Studio Installer.

How to repair

Find the Visual Studio Installer on your computer.

For example, on a computer running Windows 10 Anniversary Update or later, select Start, and then scroll to the letter V, where it's listed as Visual Studio Installer.

Note

On some computers, the Visual Studio Installer might be listed under the letter "M" as the Microsoft Visual Studio Installer.

Alternatively, you can find the Visual Studio Installer in the following location: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer\vs_installer.exe
Open the installer, choose More, and then choose Repair.

Note

Repairing Visual Studio will reset the environment. Local customizations like per-user extensions installed without elevation, user settings, and profiles will be removed. Your synchronized settings such as themes, colors, key bindings will be restored.

Tip

The Repair option appears only for installed instances of Visual Studio. If you do not see the Repair option, chances are that you've selected More in a version that's listed in the Visual Studio Installer as "Available" rather than "Installed".

Find the Visual Studio Installer on your computer.

From the Start menu in Windows, you can search for "installer".

Note

You can also find the Visual Studio Installer in the following location:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer\vs_installer.exe

You might have to update the installer before continuing. If so, follow the prompts.
In the installer, look for the edition of Visual Studio that you installed. Next, choose More, and then choose Repair.

Note

Repairing Visual Studio will reset its environment. Local customizations like per-user extensions installed without elevation, user settings, and profiles will be removed. Your synchronized settings such as themes, colors, and key bindings will be restored.

Tip

The Repair option appears only for installed instances of Visual Studio. If you do not see the Repair option, chances are that you've selected More in a version that's listed in the Visual Studio Installer as "Available" rather than "Installed".

Find the Visual Studio Installer on your computer.

From the Start menu in Windows, search for "installer", and then select Visual Studio Installer from the results.

Note

You can also find the Visual Studio Installer in the following location:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer\vs_installer.exe

You might be prompted to update the Visual Studio Installer before continuing. If so, follow the prompts.
In the Visual Studio Installer, look for the installation of Visual Studio that you want to repair. Then choose Repair from the More dropdown menu.

Note

Repairing Visual Studio will reset its environment. Local customizations, like per-user extensions installed without elevation, user settings, and profiles will be removed. Your synchronized settings such as themes, colors, and key bindings will be restored.

Tip

The Repair option applies to installed instances of Visual Studio. If you do not see the Repair option in the More dropdown menu, chances are you're in the Available tab instead of the Installed tab of the Visual Studio Installer.

Get support

Sometimes, things can go wrong. If your Visual Studio installation fails, see Troubleshoot Visual Studio installation and upgrade issues for step-by-step guidance.

Here are a few more support options:

We also offer an installation chat (English only) support option for installation-related issues.
Report product issues to us via the Report a Problem tool that appears both in the Visual Studio Installer and in the Visual Studio IDE. If you're an IT Administrator and don't have Visual Studio installed, you can submit IT Admin feedback here.
Suggest a feature, track product issues, and find answers in the Visual Studio Developer Community.

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