Deploying Visual Studio 2008 Express via Microsoft Deployment
So, you want to deploy VS2008 Express? – I did (We use it in our testing VMs).
1: Download the offline installer
First things first, get the offline installer for Visual Studio 2008 Express.
2: Extract the files from the ISO
Grab whichever edition you want to deploy from the ISO you’ve just downloaded (i’m just interested in c#). Setup a a new Application in the Deployment Workbench with these files, using the following for you Quiet install command:
ixpvcs.exe /q:a /c:”msiexec /i vs_setup.msi VSEXTUI=1 ADDLOCAL=ALL REBOOT=ReallySuppress /qn”
3: Dependancies
You’ll need to add in dependancies for Windows Installer 3.1 and the .net 2.0 framework. See this article for information on how to do just that.
Just like to say thanks to Aaron Stebner who provided the basis for this on his blog. All i’ve just is update the patch for vs2008 rather than 2005.
[…] Dave wrote an interesting post today on Deploying Visual Studio 2008 Express via Microsoft DeploymentHere’s a quick excerptYou’ll need to add in dependancies for Windows Installer 3.1 and the .net 2.0 framework. See this article for information on how to do just that. Just like to say thanks to Aaron Stebner who provided the basis for this on his blog. … […]
Hi
I’ve tried following your command line suggestion with the Visual Basic Express ixpvb.exe file but, after extracting some files, a message comes up saying that it has to be installed using the setup file.
Can you suggest anything else I could try.
Roger
Hi Dave,
nice, but command doesn’t work with Visual Studio Express 2008 (newest download).
It worked on VSE 2005.
Using setup.exe is required!
Manfred
Hi Manfred,
What I ended up doing was extracting setup (/x or /e – I can’t remember) and then doing the following:
msiexec /i vs_setup.msi VSEXTUI=1 ADDLOCAL=ALL REBOOT=ReallySuppress
Let me know how you get on!
Dave
Hi Dave,
Sorry, but none of the IExpress extracting parameters (/x /e /extract) work with this type of setup.exe. The parameters are ignored, real setup is started.
The parameters you spectified (msiexec /i ….) don’t work even if you take the files out of the temporary folder that is created when setup.exe starts.
Manfred
Manfred
How bizare, I managed to get it working an am using the above command just fine.
Drop me an e-mail (dave at dave hope dot co dot uk) and I’ll see If I can just zip up my application distribution folder and put it somewhere for you.
Dave
Why should anybody go through all that crap? A decent developer application would allow the developer to simply create an executable. Visual Studio is rubbish for a rubbish OS.
Hi Kevin,
I’m not quite sure I understand your concern?
You can install from setup.exe without problems on standalone machines. This blog post allows sysadmins to desploy the free version of Visual Studio using MDT, Group Policy etc relatively pain free.
Can you expand on your problem?
Thanks you so much for the offline instructions! They are no longer available on microsoft’s website and I couldn’t get it on my work laptop at home because my work network doesn’t allow wireless connection to my work laptop. Thank you!!!
No problem, glad I could help!
Hi not sure I follow the other posts issue, we’ve deployed successfully using your method so thanks for that! Just one problem we’re experiencing though – 64 bit debugging tools. When we run VB it says these are not registered, after a bit of digging I found these are not installed by default.
Is there anything we can do to easliy install this along with the existing successful deployment?
Thanks
Hi Jon,
To be clear – you already have deployed Visual Basic Express on an x64 system, and now want to deploy the Debugging Tools? If so, give the following a go
1: Download rdbgsetup_x64.exe from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=440ec902-3260-4cdc-b11a-6a9070a2aaab
2: Extract it somewhere with rdbgsetup_x64.exe /x
3: Run install.exe /q to install silently.
I’ve not tried it, but it should work.
[…] any help? Deploying Visual Studio 2008 Express via Microsoft Deployment | Personal website of Dave Hope Reply With Quote […]