Will uninstalling Visual Studio Build Tools 2017 after installing the 2019 version?

Question

I have Visual Studio build Tools 2017 installed on my PC.

Is it OK to uninstall Visual Studio Build Tools 2017 after installing the 2019 version? Is there software that cannot be built by 2019 version and instead requires 2017 to be built?

I am using Visual Studio Community 2019.

Gun

You can feel free to do that. It's ok:) – Semblable

First, you can do whatever you like. Second, MSBuild 15 (VS2017) and 16 (VS2019) are not 100% compatible, so sometimes you might need both. – Roundel

If you run into compatibility problems, then you can always install and use the VS2017 (MSVC 141) build tools in VS2019, via the Visual Studio Installer >> Modify >> Individual Components option. You can switch between toolsets on a Project/Configuration/Platform level. – Twentyfour

@LanceLi-MSFT That sounds like a good answer -- care to post that as an answer instead of a comment? – Gavriella

Answer 1

They are a separate set of tools, therefore you can safely remove the old building tools without affecting the stability of Visual Studio 2019.

However, MSbuild 16 shipped with Visual Studio 2019 introduces new features and some breaking changes which could result in compatibility problems (here the main announcement).

In case you run into them, you can always install the old Visual Studio 2017 Build Tools in Visual Studio 2019 by selecting the old tools via individual component. Then, you can change the toolset of the offending project by specifying the version you need as stated in msbuild documentation.

Legendre