Visual Studio 2015 installer hangs during install?

Question

I downloaded the full ISO for Visual Studio Ultimate CTP 6. The installation program got to about the 90% mark, gauging by the progress bar, and just stuck there. There was frequent activity from Superfetch, Anti-malware protection, and other background processes, but the progress bar was dead still. Eventually the background task activity subsided after 20 minutes, but the progress bar still wouldn't budge.

CHEAP TRICK: Open a notepad window and position the left edge of it so it perfectly marks the current position of the progress bar. If it the progress bar doesn't move past the left edge of the notepad window in about an hour, it's probably stuck.

Answer 1

During the installation if you think it has hung (notably during the "Android SDK Setup"), browse to your %temp% directory and order by "Date modified" (descending), there should be a bunch of log files created by the installer.

The one for the "Android SDK Setup" will be named "AndroidSDK_SI.log" (or similar).

Open the file and got to the end of it (Ctrl+End), this should indicate the progress of the current file that is being downloaded.

i.e: "(80%, 349 KiB/s, 99 seconds left)"

Reopening the file, again going to the end, you should see further indication that the download has progressed (or you could just track the modified timestamp of the file [in minutes]).

i.e: "(99%, 351 KiB/s, 1 seconds left)"

Unfortunately, the installer doesn't indicate this progress (it's running in a separate "Java.exe" process, used by the Android SDK).

This seems like a rather long-winded way to check what's happening but does give an indication that the installer hasn't hung and is doing something, albeit very slowly.

Answer 2

I had the same problem when I tried to install VS 2015 RC from ISO. It got stuck during Android SDK Setup (API Level 19 & 21, System Images). For me the problem was metered Wi-Fi connection. The installer didn't download necessary files.

Turning off the Internet connection resolved the problem. When installation finished, it said that some components were not installed and it will try to download and install them later.

Answer 3

Mine got stuck applying the .NET 4.6.1 blah... Turning off the internet and disabling Microsoft Security Essentials Real-time protection got things moving again.

Answer 4

I had the same problem on a different context. After trying to repair, uninstall, and reinstall with no solution, I decided to wipe out all Visual Studio remnant by using TotalUninstaller by follower the steps by steps on the link below:

https://github.com/Microsoft/VisualStudioUninstaller/releases

Once everything is removed, I was able to successfully install the software.

Be aware that TotalUninstaller will remove everything related to Visual Studio 2013 to 2015. Earlier version will still be preserved.

I added this solution in case someone has the exact same problem.

Answer 5

I had a similar problem. My solution was to switch off the antivirus software (Avast), download the .iso file, mount it (double click in the Windows Explorer on the .iso file), and then run it from the PowerShell with admin rights with the following switches:

.\vs_community.exe /NoWeb /NoRefresh

This way you don't have to go offline or remove your existing installation.

Answer 6

For me it helped to stop the installation service forcefully using task manager. If Visual Studio was installed in Features & Programs then uninstall it, restart computer and try to install it again.

When starting the installation make sure to be have reliable internet connection