As you can see in the image above, my machine has ten instances of Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributables, including 2010 ,2012, 2013, and 2015-2019 versions, in a mixture of x86 (32 bit) and 圆4 (64 bit) editions. You can see which are installed on your machine by visiting “Apps & features” in the Settings app and scrolling down the list 1. NET Framework, you can end up with more than one version on your machine.

For example, the Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable doesn’t automatically replace the Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable. Unfortunately, newer ones don’t supersede older ones. There are multiple different versions of Visual C++ Redistributable. On the other hand, if you have five programs all using the same Visual C++ Redistributable, there need be only one copy installed. When you install a program, the setup program may have the option of installing the Visual C++ Redistributable if it’s not present. They’re termed “redistributable” because they are Microsoft software which is allowed to be distributed, or “re-distributed”, by others. Rather than requiring every program needing this function to write it from scratch, the standard library includes such a function, ready to go.

Instead, they use this collection of pre-written and thoroughly tested software.įor example, say a program includes a function to convert a string of characters to all upper case (“all upper case” would be converted to “ALL UPPER CASE” by this function). These are collections of pre-written software allowing them to avoid rewriting common sequences of code. Programmers who write software in Microsoft Visual C++ make use of what are called “standard libraries”. dll”, and other files understood by Windows. This includes the tools to convert (or “compile”) the code that programmers write in C++ into the “.exe”, “. Visual C++ is Microsoft’s implementation of that programming language. (Click for larger image.)Ĭ++ is one of several languages programmers use to create software. Visual C++ Redistributables Visual C++ Redistributables in Settings, Apps & features.

When programs are updated or uninstalled, they typically do not uninstall the redistributables, and there’s no easy way to know which ones your machine requires. Those programs either install the redistributables they need, or ask you to do so. Visual C++ redistributables are software packages provided by Microsoft that other programs can use.

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