Get the VcRedist list

Get-VcList returns the list of Visual C++ Redistributables. The VcRedist module includes the full list of available supported and unsupported Redistributables and returns only the supported list by default. Unless you have a specific requirement, it is highly recommend that you install only the supported Redistributables.

Running Get-VcList with no parameters will return an array of the supported Redistributables by reading the internal manifest. Output can then be manipulated to filter the results. Note though, the default behaviour of Get-VcList is to return only the 14 Redistributables. This is because the 2015, 2017, 2019 and 14 Redistributables are all the same major version and will be upgraded to the 14 release and can't be installed side-by-side.

Here's a sample of what's returned:

PS C:\> Get-VcList

Name            : Visual C++ v14 Redistributable (x64)
ProductCode     : {91ee571b-0e8a-4c65-9eaf-2e2f5fc60c00}
Version         : 14.50.35719.0
URL             : https://www.visualstudio.com/downloads/
URI             : https://aka.ms/vc14/vc_redist.x64.exe
Release         : 14
Architecture    : x64
Install         : /install /passive /norestart
SilentInstall   : /install /quiet /norestart
SilentUninstall : "%ProgramData%\Package Cache\{91ee571b-0e8a-4c65-9eaf-2e2f5fc60c00}\vc_redist.x64.exe" /uninstall /quiet /norestart
UninstallKey    : 32
PackageId       : 43677731-4118-4a83-b5eb-d984ad22aa67
DetectionFile   : %SystemRoot%\System32\vcruntime140.dll

Name            : Visual C++ v14 Redistributable (x86)
ProductCode     : {0e4ccf1b-d073-4cfe-8a24-e86185719b56}
Version         : 14.50.35719.0
URL             : https://www.visualstudio.com/downloads/
URI             : https://aka.ms/vc14/vc_redist.x86.exe
Release         : 14
Architecture    : x86
Install         : /install /passive /norestart
SilentInstall   : /install /quiet /norestart
SilentUninstall : "%ProgramData%\Package Cache\{0e4ccf1b-d073-4cfe-8a24-e86185719b56}\vc_redist.x86.exe" /uninstall /quiet /norestart
UninstallKey    : 32
PackageId       : 5eb1197c-0c50-4a1b-9f88-87309b79ff3b
DetectionFile   : %SystemRoot%\System32\vcruntime140.dll

Output from Get-VcList can be filtered using Where-Object. This approach is useful where you want to export the full list of Redistributables but filter for specific processor architectures.

Get-VcList -Export All | Where-Object { $_.Architecture -eq "x64" }

To pass the list of redistributables to Install-VcRedist, Import-VcMdtApplication, Update-VcMdtApplication, Import-VcConfigMgrApplication and Update-VcConfigMgrApplication, it must first be passed through Save-VcRedist, which will then add a Path property to the object required by the other functions.

Parameters

Optional parameters

• Release - Specifies the release (or version) of the redistributables to return (e.g. 14, 2019, 2010, 2012, etc.)
• Architecture - Specifies the processor architecture to of the redistributables to return. Can be x86, x64 or arm64
• Export - Defines the list of Visual C++ Redistributables to export - All, Supported or Unsupported Redistributables. Defaults to exporting the Supported Redistributables.
• Manifest - An external JSON file that contains the details about the Visual C++ Redistributables. This must be in the expected format

Returning Supported Redistributables

Get-VcList without additional parameters will return all of the supported Redistributables. Using the -Release and -Architecture parameters will return the specified release and architecture from the supported Redistributables only.

Returning Unsupported Redistributables

To return Redistributables from the list of unsupported Redistributables or the entire list, the -Export parameter is required. The -Export parameter cannot be used with the -Release and -Architecture parameters; therefore to filter in the full list or the unsupported list of Redistributables, the output from Get-VcList must be filtered with Where-Object.

Filtering Output

The output from Get-VcList can be filtered before sending to Save-VcRedist. Get-VcList has the -Release parameter for filtering on the 14 release of the Redistributables. Additionally, the -Architecture parameter can filter on x86, x64 or arm64 processor architectures.

These parameters cannot be used with the -Export parameter. If you require filtering when exporting All, Supported or Unsupported Redistributables, pipe the output to the Where-Object function. This approach is required where you want to export a list of the unsupported Redistributables.

Examples

Return the current list of supported Redistributables:

Get-VcList

Get-VcList does not return the 2015, 2017 or 2019 releases by default. To return specific releases and processor architectures from the supported list of Redistributables, the following example can be used:

Get-VcList -Release 2015, 2017, 2019 -Architecture x64

To return the complete list of available supported and unsupported Redistributables:

Get-VcList -Export All

You may want to export the complete list of available supported and unsupported Redistributables, but filter for 64-bit Redistributables only:

Get-VcList -Export All | Where-Object { $_.Architecture -eq "x64" }

To return a specific release and architecture from the list of unsupported Visual C++ Redistributables from the embedded manifest, the following can be used to filter for the 2008, and 2010 releases and 64-bit versions of the Redistributables.

Get-VcList -Export Unsupported | Where-Object { $_.Release -in "2008", "2010" -and $_.Architecture -eq "x64" }