Can I install Visual Studio without Admin rights?

Question

I use a machine where I don't have administrator rights. I've been able to run programs without admin rights by extracting the program's .zip file to a directory I have created on my desktop. However, I can't find such a .zip file for Visual Studio.

Is there a way to install Visual Studio Community Edition without administrator rights?

Bleacher

Zip files doesn't mean you can use something without admin rights. In your case, it looks like you should use Visual Studio Code, or ask your IT department to install Community edition explaining to them how it's Free as in Beer – Vat

I am also looking for something like this. I wonder if you found something. I don't intend to debug or run anything - just being able to read the project in a better way than using some text editor. – Indiscrete

Related: Running Visual Studio without admin rights – Krause

VS Code does offer a User Installer other than System Installer for installation without admin rights. If Visual Studio doesn't, better to reach out for admin access if possible. Good to check before VS retires for Mac on 31st Aug 24 :( – Berezniki

Answer 1

Practically no. Visual Studio (Express and above, excluding VS Code) consists of multiple components that must be installed as admin, and will be required for the app you're debugging to be available as system-wide component. It might be possible to use ThinApp or its equivalent, but ThinApp can't even work with VS 2010 and it was by far the best of its class.

A (resource intensive) alternative to get VS on any PC will be packaging a VM with VS installed, either creating one yourself or get a ready-made ones. VirtuaBox is available as portable fork if you can't even get Hyper-V tools installed. But this still require kernel drivers installation, which means at least one-time admin access. Depending on your internet connection & budget, it might be more practical to setup a VPS with VS installed, then remote there.

Actin

How can you install VirtuaBox without admin rights? How will it use paravirtualization without installing drivers? – Vat

Oh right, VirtuaBox doesn't really work without the kernel drivers, updating my answer. – Actin

But at least with VirtualBox there, the rest of the stuff are contained within a VM instance without any further requiring admin password or corrupting / conflicting your Windows system – Glory

AS OF 2023, it is now possible. See Microsoft's announcement here. – Carrion

Answer 2

Despite the previous responses, you can install the Visual Studio Build Tools and Visual Studio so long as you have the executable installer.

For example, given a school computer administered profile "p3", and the file "C:\Users\p3\Downloads\vs_BuildTools.exe", open a terminal and run:

PS C:\Users\p3\Downloads> .\vs_BuildTools.exe --layout PATH/TO/INSTALL

The --layout option lets you specify an install directory. Whereas running the executable without this flag will attempt to install your program in a privileged directory, you can provide a path owned by your account to avoid admin interaction.

Edit: I wanted to install the MSVC build toolchain and only that component to build a Rust project with said target triple. If you seek only the build tools as well, check out this handy python script.

Appaloosa

that is exactly my use case! I was able to install Build Tools but Rust still asks for it. Is there an additional step? – Civies

I remember having to set a few environment variables manually, but I can't access that computer anymore so I can't tell which ones :( – Appaloosa

Answer 3

Starting with Visual Studio 17.7, standard users can update or modify their installation if a proper policy is set by an administrator.

This still doesn't permit fresh installations without admin rights, but once Visual Studio is installed with admin privileges and the AllowStandardUserControl policy is set (by adding a simple registry key value), subsequent updates or modifications won't need admin rights.

More details: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/visualstudio/standard-user-update/

Starling

If we had standard installs across our user-base, we could use Intune (or other MDM) to perform the installation. – Padraig

Answer 4

Basically, youre going to need to download an iso of windows, then download QEMU, and run it as invoker by doing that batch file thing (https://techcult.com/how-to-install-software-without-admin-rights/). Set it to anywhere, and then figure out how to boot it to QEMU cause I have absolutely no idea how (ive only done it with Kali Linux). and just install VC on there. Sorry about being so vague.

Reindeer

Answer 5

There is no way to install or use Visual Studio on Windows without admin rights. You can either use a different program to write your code in and then compile using a different compiler. Or use qemu (since it does not require admin rights) to run a windows virtual machine.

Burette

AS OF 2023, it is now possible. See Microsoft's announcement here. – Carrion

Answer 6

AS OF 2023, it is now possible. See Microsoft's Blog post here for an explanation. Quote:

We’re happy to announce that the latest Visual Studio 17.7 installer will now enable users with minimal standard permissions to update and modify Visual Studio! Installation and configuration must still be done by an administrator, but once this feature is enabled on the client machine, any installer functionality can be initiated and executed by a standard non-administrator user.

To enable this functionality, an administrator will need to perform two simple actions on the client machine: install the latest installer and set the new global policy.

I use Microsoft Intune in my organisation and I created a policy to allow users to run Visual Studio installer without local admin rights. I'm sure this can be done using Group Policy Objects in on-premise domains, or even local policies on workgroups without Active Directory domains.

Carrion