Visual C++ Runtimes and Sonar

Y'all

Everything seems to come bundled with a Visual C++ redistributable runtime libraries (Including Sonar 8.*) for both 2005/2008 versions.

I notice however that the sum total of all this is that I had three slightly different builds of each version of these redistributable libraries installed in my (XP Pro) Add/Remove programs list.

Figuring this was none too clever a scenario (some apps. just install the runtimes without asking first), I went off to the MS download site got the latest versions of these redistributables removed the 6 installs that had accumulated and re-installed the freshest versions as I like to keep my system lean and clean and less prone to file version conflicts.

I'm wondering now if this would impact on Sonar in any negative way (it doesn't seem to have) or is each app. tied to the specific sub-revision of the C++ libraries.  So any of you boffins know whether the latest greatest revisions will fit all, or am I lumbered with having 6 versions of effectively the same thing installed?

It's no problem to re-install the specific library that came on the S8 DVD but is there a specific need to do so?

I, too, am interested in the answer. I have multiple versions of C++ 2005 & 2008 on my system. Some of the plugins I've installed (certain Voxengo plugs, I believe, for example) stated that if Visual C++ was already installed it wasn't necessary to install it again) but, obviously, a few others didn't clarify that issue.

As I will be doing a clean install of Win7 this weekend (or sometime next week depending on when I can finish the project I'm currently working on) I'm interested in know what to do about the duplicity of these files.

C++ runtime libraries are supposed to be backward-compatible and they are supposed to comply with the ISO standard. (Unfortunately, C++ caught on before an ISO standard even existed, and there were a lot of compatibility issues in the early days. Most of those have since been resolved.)

Just about every commercial Windows application on the planet depends on these libraries, even if only indirectly. If Microsoft were to break compatibility they'd have an unimaginably huge problem, so they go to great lengths to not let that happen.

(Compatibility issues do exist, but they mostly affect programmers, since the compatibility issues usually result in failure to properly compile or link an executable. Stuff the programmers have to sort out. Consequently, you, the end user, are never aware of how much hair-pulling went on during an application's development.)

A long-winded way of saying that having a recent release is probably not going to cause you any problems. Having a very old release might, though.

You would expect to have multiple versions installed ..  That is the way things now work!

Things work differently with Visual Studio 2005 and above.  There are now multiple different versions of the runtime libraries, even for the same visual studio release.   

Each application has information compiled in to it (a manifest) that indicates the exact version / revision of the runtime it requires to run, Windows will use this information to load the correct revision of the library when the application loads.

Each application is required to distribute the visual studio runtime that it needs to ensure that revision is installed on the target system.  If it already exists that is not a problem, the runtime installer just skips the install.

The individual runtime revisions are not installed as 'normal' DLLs, instead they get install into the side-by-side directory (SxS) which is kind of mini database that Windows uses to store and 'serve' the correct runtime to the application when it loads..

BOTTOM LINE - DO NOT screw with the runtimes, certainly don't go and uninstall any, as then certain applications won't work without a full reinstall..  Things in the background are now FAR more complex than a single DLL being located at startup via the PATH variable !!

Thanks Noel, KDKimber and Bit particularly.

I've kept both major versions 2005 and 2008 I wasn't planning on doing without them I realise they need to be there.

What I was talking about is there seem to be among developers countless minor point releases which end up being supplied with their particular product making several installs of the same thing, whereas end users are given exactly one SP1 version of each redistributable to download directly from the MS download area.

KDK has answered in that the manifest for each of them is different therefore there effectively shouldn't be any file version conflicts. Therefore I shall be heeding his bottom line.

BOTTOM LINE - DO NOT screw with the runtimes, certainly don't go and uninstall any, as then certain applications won't work without a full reinstall..  Things in the background are now FAR more complex than a single DLL being located at startup via the PATH variable !!

I knew among you guys would be the definitive answer.

papa2005


Thanks for the definitive answers! Since the total size of all the versions is only 13.4 MB (on my 500 GB system drive) it's not as if I really need that space back! *LOL*

Obviously size wasn't an issue concerning me here, although the idea of conflicting file versions was or possibly could have been.

Noel Borthwick [Cakewalk
]

Do NOT uninstall the CS runtimes or you will break some application or the other. If its on your system some application installed it because it needs it!
We install 2 flavors because we redistribute certain plugins that are not built by us. These plugins require the older runtimes.
Additionally there might be multiple versions depending on which service pack is being used by the various vendors. Executable files in Windows now have a manifest inside it that identifies the specific version of the runtime that it was compiled with. If the runtime is not found the application will fail to launch.
 
So do not remove any versions on your machine unless you really know what you are doing.

 
 
Great that you straight that out!
Have a nice weekend Noel.
 
 
Regards
Freddie