Can't update Visual Studio Professional offline layout

Question

Can't update Visual Studio Professional offline layout

Washington, Candace N 40

I've been dealing with this problem for months now, and I'm not sure what else can be done. Based on the documentation provided to me by an admin who successfully did this on another offline network, the only thing I should have to do is get the latest version of the workloads I need:

vs_professional.exe --layout C:\Desktop\VSlayout --lang en-US --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.ManagedDesktop --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.NativeDesktop --includeRecommended

and install it with essentially the same command:

vs_professional.exe --noweb --lang en-US --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.ManagedDesktop --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.NativeDesktop --includeRecommended

I've done this, but I keep getting error messages saying my layout is missing a bunch of stuff. It took me forever to figure out that the stuff I was missing was not only for out of support components, but also they were referencing packages that were part of the modules. Some of the missing items I was able to rectify by adding "--includeOptional" to the command and after scouring online, adding "removeOos:true" to the layout and response json files.

Now that I tried the commands again, the installer is saying I'm missing packages from Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.Universal. This was never installed on the offline machine, nor did I download it when I made my layout. Why is it searching for workloads that aren't there? Is it still trying to reach out to the internet despite my noweb flag?

I also ran some tests. I changed the channel uri in the response.json file to a local location (to ensure it didn't try to reach out) by setting it to the layout's channel manifest instead of the default https://aka.ms/vs/16/release/channel. When I do that, the event log shows Event 1000 application error, KERNELBASE.dll exception code 0xe0434352. When I leave it as it is (pointing to the default https:aka.ms.....), the installer runs, but says I'm missing workloads.

I feel like I shouldn't have to do all this to get this layout to update, but I can't seem to find any answers online, or in the Visual Studio Developer Community. I'm just trying to update 2019 version 16.11.11 to 16.11.60. Do I really have to download the entire program to get this to work? if that's the case, then why switch the update process to "layouts" in the first place. This is all so confusing and frustrating. The IT admin who gave me his working documentation is as stumped as I am.

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Answer 1

For an offline update from Visual Studio 2019 16.11.11 to 16.11.60, a full layout is not required. A minimal offline layout is the supported way to update offline Visual Studio instances because it contains only the updated packages needed for the version range.

Use this approach instead of rebuilding a general-purpose layout with workload switches:

Generate a minimal layout for Visual Studio Professional covering the exact version range.

   MinimalLayout.exe generate --targetLocation C:\VSLayout\ --productIds Microsoft.VisualStudio.Product.Professional --baseVersion 16.11.11 --targetVersion 16.11.60 --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.ManagedDesktop Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.NativeDesktop --includeRecommended --languages en-US

Verify the layout for missing or corrupt packages.

   MinimalLayout.exe Verify --targetLocation C:\VSLayout\ --productIds Microsoft.VisualStudio.Product.Professional --baseVersion 16.11.11 --targetVersion 16.11.60 --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.ManagedDesktop Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.NativeDesktop --includeRecommended --languages en-US

If Verify reports problems, fix the layout.

   MinimalLayout.exe fix --targetLocation C:\VSLayout\ --productIds Microsoft.VisualStudio.Product.Professional --baseVersion 16.11.11 --targetVersion 16.11.60 --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.ManagedDesktop Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.NativeDesktop;includeRecommended --languages en-US

On the offline machine, update the Visual Studio Installer first.

   vs_professional.exe --quiet --update --offline C:\VSLayout\vs_installer.opc

Then update the installed Visual Studio instance and explicitly block web downloads.

   vs_professional.exe update --noWeb --quiet --installPath "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Professional"

Important points for the behavior being seen:

--noWeb is the recommended option when updating from a minimal offline layout because it prevents installation of components that are not in the layout and helps avoid leaving Visual Studio unusable.
If the installer reports missing packages, the layout itself is incomplete, corrupt, or not built for the exact update scenario. The supported remediation is to run Verify and fix on the minimal layout.
If multiple Visual Studio instances are installed, each instance must be updated separately with its own --installPath.
A minimal layout is specifically intended for offline updates and is smaller than a full layout because it contains only updated packages.
A minimal layout cannot be used to repair an installation; it is for updating an existing instance.

For a standard network layout, the update source must already contain the updated Visual Studio version before clients update from it. Also ensure the account running the update has access to the network share or internal website hosting the layout.

If the update still fails after rebuilding the layout with the minimal layout tool and running Verify/fix, use the installation troubleshooting guidance or installation chat support.

References: