Visual Studio 2015 FAQ

Visual Studio Blog

Since we released Visual Studio 2015 on July 20th we’ve been busily answering questions on our forums, here on the blog, on Connect, and on StackOverflow. Here are some of the common questions.

Install / Setup

  1. Why is my setup taking so long / hanging partway through. What’s going on?
  2. Where are the ISO Images for VS 2015?
  3. Can I create a custom ISO image that includes all the third party software?
  4. Can I upgrade from VS 2015 RC to VS 2015 RTM?
  5. Does VS 2015 work side by side with VS 2013, or VS 2012?

Licensing / Purchase

  1. I signed into the IDE, but it’s still telling me that the trial will expire. What’s going on?
  2. Community Edition is telling me my trial has expired. Do I have to pay for Community edition?
  3. Why do I have to sign in with my Microsoft account every day to access Azure resources?
  4. Where can I buy Visual Studio Pro without MSDN (Pro only)?
  5. I already have a paid SKU of VS 2013. Do I need to pay for VS 2015?

Tools / Features

  1. I installed VS 2015 but can’t find tools for Windows 10 development. Where are they?
  2. I can’t find Visual Studio 2015 in the Start Menu. Is my VS install corrupt?
  3. Why do the diagnostics tools fail unexpectedly?
  4. How do I use NuGet in a Cordova project?
  5. When saving Xaml files or switching between Xaml and C#, VS locks up for a few seconds. Why is this and how can I workaround it?

Install / Setup

1. Why is my setup taking so long / hanging partway through. What’s going on?

In VS 2015 you can chose to configure your setup to only install the tools you want, which makes the install lighter and faster. If you chose to do a full installation though, Visual Studio is a pretty big product and will take over 30GB of disk space after installation and it installs a lot of third party software including the Android SDK, the Java Developer Kit, and the Windows and Android emulators. The progress indicator during installation of the third-party software doesn’t advance, but the software is usually being installed — that’s a bug we’re going to fix. On a slow connection in particular, download can take a very long time or even time out. If setup doesn’t complete successfully, try the ISO image.

2. Where are the ISO Images for VS 2015?

Browse to https://www.visualstudio.com/downloads/download-visual-studio-vs and select Visual Studio 2015 from the left navigation on the page. Select the product you want, then in the drop down for “choose format,” select ISO.

3. Can I create a custom ISO image that includes all the third party software?

You’re going to want to use the /layout switch on setup to create an offline setup. To do that, browse to https://www.visualstudio.com/downloads/download-visual-studio-vs and select Visual Studio 2015 from the left navigation on the page. Select the Web (Online) format for the installer and when prompted by the browser, save the file. Then go to the command line and run that setup program from where you saved it, but include the /layout switch. This MSDN article section on Downloading VS for an offline installation MSDN explains more about how to do that.

4. Can I upgrade from VS 2015 RC to VS 2015 RTM?

Yes. Visual Studio 2015 RTM installs right on top of VS 2015 RC or any other previous CTP for VS 2015. Go to downloads page on visualstudio.com to start the VS 2015 RTM download.

The upgrade however works only when upgrading at the same SKU level e.g. upgrading from VS 2015 RC Professional to VS 2015 RTM Professional. The upgrade from RC to RTM won’t work if the SKU level is different, e.g. when upgrading from Community to Professional, Professional to Enterprise, or downgrading from Enterprise to Professional, or Professional to Community. In this case you will need to uninstall the existing version of VS 2015 before installing VS 2015 RTM . Check out this MSDN library on Installing Visual Studio for more info on troubleshooting and repairing your installation.

5. Does VS 2015 work side by side with VS 2013, or VS 2012?

Yes Visual Studio 2015 works side by side with VS 2013, &/or VS 2012. This MSDN article on Installing VS Versions side-by-side provides details on how this works.

Licensing / Purchase

1. I signed into the IDE, but it’s still telling me that the trial will expire. What’s going on?

The odds are that the account you signed in with doesn’t have an MSDN subscription or Visual Studio Online subscription associated with it. Sign in with an account that does and the license should be issued automatically or apply a product key

2. Community Edition is telling me my trial has expired. Do I have to pay for Community edition?

No, Community edition is free to use. We use the same infrastructure that allows you to unlock VS w/ an online subscription to manage the requirement of signing into Community edition so some of our strings overlap cross these scenarios. Trial here means the period you can use the community edition before you must sign in to fully unlock the IDE.

3. Why do I have to sign in with my Microsoft account every day to access Azure resources?

The token issued for a Microsoft account have a fixed 12-hour lifecycle. We are working on improvements that will allow us to apply a more liberal lifecycle policy on the tokens issued for MSAs through Azure. In the interim we recommend setting a Work or School account as the administrator for subscriptions you access frequently because tokens issued to Work or School accounts have a more permissive lifecycle policy. You can add an additional account to Visual Studio under “File -> Account Settings” and access azure resources throughout Visual Studio by selecting that account from the Account picker that appears.

4. Where can I buy Visual Studio Pro without MSDN (Pro only)?

It will be available for sale via resellers and the online Microsoft Store starting on September 1st, the delay is due to channel logistics. In the meantime you can rent Visual Studio Professional 2015 monthly for $45 (US pricing). Details on how to buy are on the get user licenses page on visualstudio.com. You will need to choose the Visual Studio Online Professional plan and then you can sign in to the Visual Studio Professional 2015 trial and it’ll work.  We don’t however offer product keys through Visual Studio Online.

5. I already have a paid SKU of VS 2013. Do I need to pay for VS 2015?

Yes.

Visual Studio 2015 does not install on top of VS 2013, but is installed alongside VS 2013. You can however, try VS 2015 for free for 30 days, after which your license will expire. Additionally you can use Visual Studio 2015 Community for free. Check out the license terms for using VS Community.

Tools / Features

1. I installed VS 2015 but can’t find tools for Windows 10 development. Where are they?

During setup, Windows 10 tools aren’t turned on by default. Re-run setup (e.g. Go to the control panel and select Visual Studio and click modify or change) and click on the Advanced button. You’ll see a check box there for the Win10 tools. Turn it on and proceed.

2. I can’t find Visual Studio 2015 in the Start Menu. Is my VS install corrupt?

No, your VS install is not corrupt. The Visual Studio 2015 application icon has been moved outside of the Visual Studio 2015 folder. If you’re running Windows 7, you can find the application at the top of the “All Programs” list grouped with other application icons. If you are running Windows 8, 8.1 or 10,  you can find the application listed under the ‘V’ grouping. If you are still unable to find it, use Windows search (press the Windows key, then type “Visual Studio 2015”).

The application icon will no longer be located in the Visual Studio 2015 folder.  

3. Why do the diagnostics tools fail unexpectedly?

The primary cause for this is a known issue for those of you that have upgraded from an earlier preview version of Windows 10. If you are on Windows 10 you can confirm the issue by switching to the “Diagnostics Hub” tab of the output window, and you will see “No such interface supported” in the output. More information, including workaround steps to resolve this issue please read the post on No such interface supported in VS 2015 on Windows 10. Other causes of the window failing unexpectedly are being actively investigated, if you experience other failures please report these using the Feedback tools in Visual Studio 2015.

4. How do I use NuGet in a Cordova project?

We’re working on guidance documentation to help you with this. We are also closely monitoring your feedback and are looking at improve this experience.

5. When saving Xaml files or switching between Xaml and C#, why does VS lock up for a few seconds. How can I workaround it?

This is a bug. We are working on a fix right now. Meanwhile the workaround is to remove msbuild:Compile property from file properties.

Check out the Visual Studio 2015 KB for other bug fixes and workaround we have shared for this release. Is your question or bug not answered anywhere? Please leave us a comment below and we will help you as best we can.

 image Radhika Tadinada, Program Manager, Visual Studio
@RadhikaTadinada

Radhika has been at Microsoft for almost 4 years. She first started off as a Program Manager on the Visual Studio Platform team where she helped build IDE features. She is currently with the Customer team and manages the Visual Studio blog.

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