How to install VC80CRT debug runtimes without full visual studio 2005?

Question

I can't run a debug sdk application because it requires both VC 8 and VC 9 versions of the CRT. But it only requires visual studio 2008 for plugin dev, which is what I need.

How do I install the debug runtimes from 2005 on to a Windows7 machine? I can't figure out how to make them run app local nor can I copy anything into the winSxS folder without a trusted installer.

Popularity

I had the same issue. Ganesh R. answer works for me - no need to install Visual Studio just to obtain run time dlls – Pastoralist

Answer 1

You must install visual studio to get the debug CRT. This will be moot as soon as we don't need 2005 or 2008 again.

Popularity

Answer 2

Refer to this post.

As per this the debug dlls can be found at:

For Visual Studio 2005:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\redist\Debug_NonRedist\x86

For Visual Studio 2008:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\redist\Debug_NonRedist\x86

Also as per what I know you need not have these dlls in the WinSxS folder. Even if these dlls are present in the same directory as your application exe is, it will do. Anyways using debug dlls in production environment is not recommended.

In case you elevate your application, make sure you set the 'Start in' path to the application home/install directory or add the path to the VC++ debug dlls to the PATH environment variable.

Caton

I'm not using this in a production environment. And copying them locally to the folder with the exe does not work. – Popularity

Are you getting a File Not Found Exception? Are you running your application elevated? Try adding the File path to PATH variable. Also try setting the current working directory to the folder containing the dlls. Else if everything fails you can try installing Visual Studio VC++ Express on that machine. – Caton

--------------------------- application.exe - Application Error --------------------------- The application was unable to start correctly (0xc0150002). Click OK to close the application. --------------------------- OK --------------------------- – Popularity

I ended up installing the smallest visual studio the gui would allow. That seemed to fix this problem. But I'm just kicking the ball down the field. Now I get an exception at ntdll.dll. I'll post this in another question perhaps. – Popularity

With newer VC++ version just the number grows (e.g. 2010 = ... Studio 10.0\VC\redist\Debug_NonRedist\... - and so on). And on x64 this will be in Program Files (x86). I put the debug DLLs in C:\Windows\System32, and had no problem running a debug build on an otherwise naked machine (no VS, just a remote debugger). – Fink

Answer 3

You can create a simple setup project (vdproj) which pulls in the debug merge modules.

This works fine up to Visual Studio 2010 (VS10) but is not supported for 2012 (VS11) and later :o(

Resee

Thanks. This came up again this morning. I need to support an old plugin and my new dev box doesn't have vs2005 installed. – Popularity

This is the best solution, but it works only if your file needs the same version as the newest runtime on your computer. In my case I had problems because the file requires VS2008 without runtime, but the merge module on my computer only supports VS2008 SP1. My solution was to install VS2008 without SP1 on a developer PC to create the setup. – Hoitytoity

Answer 4

You must install the C++ compilers to get the debug CRT, but you don't have to install all of Visual Studio. Instead, use the web install of the Windows SDK to install the compilers. The Windows 6 SDK includes the VC8 compilers, the Windows 7 SDK includes the VC9 compilers and the Windows 7.1 SDK includes the VC10 compilers.

Hummocky

That sounds about as bad as installing vs. Whats the payload size of the SDK? – Popularity

The Windows 7.1 SDK compilers require 610.6MB of hard disk space. You don't have to install any of the other parts of the SDK. – Hummocky