How to: Install a Specific Release of Visual Studio
Note
This article applies to Visual Studio 2015. If you're looking for the latest Visual Studio documentation, see Visual Studio documentation. We recommend upgrading to the latest version of Visual Studio. Download it here
We update Visual Studio setup often so that you get the most current, optimized version of our optional features. But if you want to install an earlier release of Visual Studio 2015—for example, a pre-Update 1 release of Visual Studio with iOS support—then you must force Visual Studio setup to use an earlier version of its feature manifest files. This article describes how to do so.
Installing the current release
Since the initial release of Visual Studio 2015, we've updated the setup engine and the manifest files several times. This means that if you download the web installer from the Visual Studio Downloads website on a clean, internet-connected machine, setup installs the latest Visual Studio 2015 update, which includes the latest product improvements as well as newer, recent versions of optional features and tools.
Installing earlier releases
You can either create and mount an ISO image, or you can download and launch the installer directly from My.VisualStudio.com and then append the .exe file with additional command-line parameters (such as /CustomInstallPath, /Full, /InstallSelectableItems, /NoRestart, etc.) to control how Visual Studio gets installed.
The following table includes some specific point-in-time scenarios and the necessary command-line parameters you must pass to the Enterprise edition installer. (The same parameters will work with the Community or Professional edition installers as well.)
| Visual Studio 2015 edition | What to run | Command-line to use | What setup does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visual Studio Enterprise (the latest public release) | Visual Studio Enterprise with Updates (available from My.VisualStudio.com) | vs_enterprise.exe Note: The default behavior of this installation offers the most recent optional features and therefore, it does not require any command-line parameters. |
Visual Studio setup will use the most recent feed.xml and install the most recent files |
| Visual Studio Enterprise Update 3 (the original Update 3 without any further Update 3-era updates) | Visual Studio Enterprise RTM (available from the MSDN Subscriptions download page) | vs_enterprise.exe /OverrideFeedURI https://download.microsoft.com/download/6/B/B/6BBD3561-D764-4F39-AB8E-05356A122545/20160628.2/enu/feed.xml |
Visual Studio setup will use the feed.xml that was available when Update 3 released |
| Visual Studio Enterprise Update 2 (the original Update 2, but with updates that pre-date Update 3) | Visual Studio Enterprise RTM (available from the MSDN Subscriptions download page) | vs_enterprise.exe /OverrideFeedURI https://download.microsoft.com/download/6/B/B/6BBD3561-D764-4F39-AB8E-05356A122545/20160620.2/enu/feed.xml |
Visual Studio setup will use the feed.xml that was current before Update 3 released |
| Visual Studio Enterprise (the original Update 2 without any further Update 2-era updates) | Visual Studio Enterprise RTM (available from the MSDN Subscriptions download page) | vs_enterprise.exe /OverrideFeedURI https://download.microsoft.com/download/0/6/B/06BB0C5C-C767-4250-91DA-AB463377597E/20160405.3/enu/feed.xml |
Visual Studio setup will use the feed.xml that was available when Update 2 released |
| Visual Studio Enterprise Update 1 (the original Update 1, but with updates that pre-date Update 2) | Visual Studio Enterprise RTM (available from the MSDN Subscriptions download page) | vs_enterprise.exe /OverrideFeedURI https://download.microsoft.com/download/3/2/A/32A1974F-D236-43C1-8981-97DDCBAEF14A/20160225.3/enu/feed.xml |
Visual Studio setup will use the feed.xml that was current before Update 2 released |
| Visual Studio Enterprise Update 1 (the original Update 1 without any further Update 1-era updates) | Visual Studio Enterprise RTM (available from the MSDN Subscriptions download page) | vs_enterprise.exe /OverrideFeedURI https://download.microsoft.com/download/3/2/A/32A1974F-D236-43C1-8981-97DDCBAEF14A/20151201.1/enu/feed.xml |
Visual Studio setup will use the feed.xml that was available when Update 1 released |
| Visual Studio Enterprise (the original RTM, but with updates that pre-date Update 1) | Visual Studio Enterprise RTM (available from the MSDN Subscriptions download page) | vs_enterprise.exe /OverrideFeedURI https://download.microsoft.com/download/3/6/1/36188D5F-479F-4A46-BF55-6AE5928D1EBB/20151102.3/enu/feed.xml |
Visual Studio setup will use the feed.xml that was current before Update 1 released |
| Visual Studio Enterprise (the original RTM with no updates) | Visual Studio Enterprise RTM (available from the MSDN Subscriptions download page) | vs_enterprise.exe /OverrideFeedURI https://download.microsoft.com/download/5/7/B/57BF5016-E4F0-4EB5-BE27-2BFA87E7723F/20150713.1/enu/feed.xml |
Visual Studio setup will use the feed.xml that was available when RTM released |
Important
Depending on the language that you want to use, please replace "enu" (for English) with one of the following values:
- chs (for Chinese (Simplified))
- cht (for Chinese (Traditional))
- csy (for Czech)
- deu (for German)
- esn (for Spanish)
- fra (for French)
- ita (for Italian)
- jpa (for Japanese)
- kor (for Korean)
- plk (for Polish)
- ptb (for Portuguese)
- rus (for Russian)
- trk (for Turkish)