Programmatically finding the VS2017 installation d

Question

With previous versions of VS you could query the registry to determine the installation directory for VS:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0

However, this doesn't seem to work with the VS2017 RC. We have scripts that detect the latest installed VS and then do "the right thing", and so far I'm having issues plugging VS2017 into those systems.

Does anyone know how to programmatically determine the installation location for VS2017?

Answer 1

I use powershell like KindDragon suggested

$Is64bitOs = $env:PROCESSOR_ARCHITEW6432 -eq 'AMD64';
if ($Is64bitOs){
    $registryPath = "Registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0";
}
else {
    $registryPath = "Registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0";
}

$VSInstallDir = (Get-ItemProperty -Path Registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0 -Name ShellFolder).ShellFolder;

Answer 2

You can use vswhere tool to get VS2017 location.

Example:

@echo off

rem VS2017U2 contains vswhere.exe
if "%VSWHERE%"=="" set "VSWHERE=%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer\vswhere.exe"

for /f "usebackq tokens=*" %%i in (`"%VSWHERE%" -latest -products * -requires Microsoft.Component.MSBuild -property installationPath`) do (
  set InstallDir=%%i
)

if exist "%InstallDir%\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\MSBuild.exe" (
  "%InstallDir%\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\MSBuild.exe" %*
)

You can read more about it here: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/heaths/2017/02/25/vswhere-available/

Answer 3

I had a devil of time trying to modify Srekel's answer to search for only VS2017. Note: If you put the "for" statement below inside an "if" block it will wreck the escape characters and won't work.

SETLOCAL EnableDelayedExpansion

if not exist "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer\vswhere.exe" (
  echo "WARNING: You need VS 2017 version 15.2 or later (for vswhere.exe)"
)

set vswherestr=^"!ProgramFiles(x86)!\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer\vswhere.exe^" -version [15.0,16.0^^) -products * -requires Microsoft.Component.MSBuild -property installationPath
for /f "usebackq tokens=*" %%i in (`!vswherestr!`) do (  
  set BUILDVCTOOLS=%%i\Common7\Tools
  echo BUILDVCTOOLS: !BUILDVCTOOLS!
  if not exist !BUILDVCTOOLS!\VsDevCmd.bat (
    echo Error: Cannot find VS2017 Build Tools
    goto :buildfailed
  )
  call "!BUILDVCTOOLS!\VsDevCmd.bat"
)